Finally, Greg found some internet access!

Sorry it's been almost a week since I've updated Greg's blog, but I've not talked to him much at all. His most recent hotel didn't have wireless internet access. He's on his way to Shanghai right now and feels pretty confident his hotel there will be more connected with the rest of the world. I got this e-mail today from him so I could send all of you an update. Olivia and I are counting down the days, literally....we made a chain and Olivia has been tearing a ring off each day and then counting how many days left until Daddy comes home! Hope to post more soon as he wraps up his last few days exploring China! Here's his Journal from where he left off last time:

Monday June 22
Today was the day that all members of the study tour have been eagerly anticipating: a visit to see the famed Terre Cotta Warriors. They did not disappoint as we were awed at the grandeur of this clay army constructed by Emperor Qin to guard his tomb in the afterlife. There are nearly 8,000 soldiers and horses at this site, each with unique physical features and military ranks. Many of the soldiers were destroyed during a peasant uprising following the Emperors untimely demise and therefore had to be reconstructed by archeologists, an incredible undertaking. Overall, the warriors seemingly speak to you and immediately transport one to China’s imperial past.
After a lunch of Chinese food (go figure), we had an interesting experience visiting a traditional Xian farm family. The family lived a rather simple existence in a cave dwelling. I was surprised at the strong Maoist/Communist influence as there were a number of Mao and CCP posters decorating the house. There were approximately 4 rooms in this cave dwelling, parts of which were literally dug into a cave and a well to get water. The family was extremely gracious and explained a bit about farm life in China, while their existence was simple; they appeared happy and relatively well-off.
Our final stop was to the Grand Mosque of Xian. This is the largest mosque in China and demonstrates the large number of ideas and religions that arrived in China via the Silk Road. We talked to an imam and had the opportunity to see other philosophies such as Taoism incorporated into Islam in China. We also walked through the Muslim quarter. This is an eclectic market area where you can buy anything from Guess jeans to Mao’s Little Red Book to lamb kebobs and tea. I found a bought Terre Cotta warrior chess set for a whopping 100 Yuan (about 14 bucks). This was good find considering there were 800 Yuan at Terre Cotta warrior museum.
The day ended with some fun and spontaneity. Me and some friends walked to the South Gate of the Xian city wall and searched for a restaurant. We found a Chinese place (go figure) and again did the point and hope method of ordering. We once again got lucky as we had an excellent meal, with one item being similar to buffalo wings. Following dinner, we hopped in a Chinese cab for the first time. All I can say is that I lived through the experience as Chinese drivers are CRAZY!!!! You couldn’t pay me enough to drive in Xian. Following dinner, we returned to the Wild Goose Pagoda to see a water/light-show in from of the Pagoda. It was a bit less than the Bellagio in Vegas but entertaining nonetheless. As we were sitting at on outdoor café enjoying the show, we struck up a conversation with a young Chinese couple. The discussion ranged from western movies, to Chinese toilets, to the NBA. I’m consistently amazed that the Chinese know much more about the NBA than I do. If the NBA was smart, they’d start a new franchise in Beijing…

Tuesday, June 23
Today we had the opportunity to visit a middle school in Xian. As I said before, American’s are rock stars in China. We were greeted to the student body cheering and waving to us. I don’t think my American students would be that excited about a Chinese delegation visiting their school. We had the opportunity to visit a number of classes and were guided by two Chinese students who spoke English better than a few of my students back in the states. The first English class we visited greeted us with a song in English about friendship which caused a number of people in our group to tear up. The class than followed utilized much more technology than I anticipated as a Power Point with projector was used (as was the case in nearly every other class). The class size was around 60 students and there was not a single discipline problem. I asked a number of teachers what their main discipline problem was and most didn’t understand what I was asking. The common response that the greatest problem they had was students not grasping a concept. This is a huge difference from the states as students’ acting out seems to be a constant problem with most teachers. Discipline issues appear to be a non-factor in this particular Chinese school. Granted, this school is for advanced students. Out of 2000 applicants, it only accepts 300 new students per year. However, the general impression that I get is that, overall, Chinese students are extremely respectful and well behaved demonstration an adherence to Confucian principles.
We observed a few more classes and saw some instructional strategies used in the States such as cooperative learning, a strategy that was rarely used in China a few years ago. Following our classroom visit, we were taken to their television studio which was extremely state-of-the-art and a robotics lab. Students here created a robot that could sense heat and blow out a candle. Wow! The visit concluded with a student performance of traditional Chinese dance and music. We were also given gifts from the school that included traditional Chinese artwork and shadow puppets. A Chinese teacher made the observation that if we combined the creative element of American schools with the structure of Chinese schools, we would create the perfect learning environment. I couldn’t agree more.
Following the school visit, we had a free day in Xian and our first stop was a Taoist temple. I found it extremely interesting how many aspects of Taoism and Buddhism get intertwined in China. On the way there, we talked to our Buddhist cab driver through Richard Borer translation. He said he was Buddhist but that Taoism was good as well and asked us to light some incense for him. He also made some keen observations about Mao and the Cultural Revolution. The man was the first person we encountered in China who was decidedly anti-Mao. He stated that during the Cultural Revolution, him and other Buddhists were held down and beaten by the Red Guard while forced to put on dunce caps, renouncing their religion. As we entered the temple, there was the traditional burning of incense. There was a wall where people were rubbing coins. The legend goes that you will have good luck if you can get a coin to stick. Amazingly, this old Chinese woman got a coin to seemingly stay levitated on the wall. Weird stuff…
As we were exploring the temple, Richard again struck a conversation with a Chinese gentleman who was a Taoist monk. He amazingly invited us into the temple and had another monk get us temple food, a great honor. As we ate watermelon in the temple, we learned that the monk was also a Tai Chi master. He offered to give us a free Tai Chi lesson on the temple grounds after we finished exploring the temple. Following our exploration, the lesson began in a courtyard of the Taoist temple. With about 100 Chinese people laughing themselves silly, we attempted to duplicate this moves of the monk. With the exception of Jona, none of us were terribly successful. Following the ½ hour lesson, we departed after giving the monk gifts that we could scrounge up from our bag.
Following another death-defying cab ride, we proceeded to the south gate of the city wall to find a place to eat. We lost half of our group so I decided to scout a place to eat. I learned that crossing a roundabout in downtown Xian should cause your life insurance rates to increase tenfold. I felt like I was back in the ‘80’s playing Frogger only I was the frog. After nearly getting hit by a bus, I returned to my group and decided that we would locate a place to eat as a unit. After walking a few blocks, we discovered a Pizza Hut (Yeah American Food!!!). I learned that even in China, pizza is good…After packing, I decided to get a good nights rest to get ready for the flight to Kunming.

Wednesday, June 24
From Xian, we caught a morning flight to Kunming which is in Yunnan Provence in Southwestern China. After landing and lunch we explored some of the natural wonders around Kunming. Our first stop was the Dragon’s Gate in the Western Hills. The Dragon’s Gate is a Taoist temple that offers stunning views of the surrounding countryside. You are up a good 400 feet and the drop is nearly straight down. Don’t slip… We also visited the Grand View Pavilion that was a botanical garden. It again had many Taoist temples and beautiful trees and flowers. Banzai trees were everywhere and Mr. Meagi would have been proud…
In the evening, we explored downtown Kunming and located a restaurant called “The Hump”. The establishment gets its name from the route flown by the famed Flying Tigers, U.S. pilots who aided the Chinese in fighting Japan prior to the U.S. getting involved in WWII. “The Hump” was the route the planes had to fly between the Himalayas due to Japanese control of the Burma Road. The Restaurant was adorned with pictures and memorabilia of the Flying Tigers. Too cool! I foresee my students having an assignment on the Flying Tigers next year…

Thursday, June 25
An outdoor excursion today as we visit the stone forest outside of Kunming. The Stone Forest is an other-worldly panorama of stone steles created a couple of million years ago by the forces of nature. I could try to describe it in writing but I simply won’t be able to do the Stone Forest justice. I’ll just have to post a few pictures. We hiked for about 2 hours and saw absolutely spectacular landscapes. In the evening, we visited “The Hump” the final time and paid our respects to the Flying Tigers. We heard an account of an elderly Chinese woman who saw the Tiger’s go into action against the Japanese for the first time. Apparently, there was a great deal of fear that the Japanese were going to invade Kunming and commit the same atrocities that were seen and Nanking. The woman recounted her stories of dogfights over Kunming, downed Zero’s, and throngs of cheering Chinese with tears in her eyes….

Xian and Pictures

Sunday June 21
After an interesting overnight train ride, we arrived in Xian around 10:00 am. Our first taste of the culture of Xian was a trip to the local McDonald’s where we ate an exotic meal of double cheeseburgers and fries. Following our dining experience, we checked into our hotel (again, REALLY nice), freshened up with a well-needed shower, and headed out to explore Xian. Our first major stop was to the city wall. Built during the Ming Dynasty around 1370, it was intended to protect the then capital of China from invasion. The wall is massive and dwarfs the famous city wall of York, England. There are three gates and we entered through the south. The total perimeter of the wall is totals more than 8 miles and it averages around 30 meters in height. It is the only fully intact city wall in all of China and helped to protect the start of the ancient silk road . It is truly an impressive sight and the opportunity to walk on the wall was surreal.
Following the wall visit, we went to the Shanxi Provincial Historical Museum. This was a fairly typical museum that traced the history of Shanxi Provence from pre-historic times through the Qing dynasty. There had a few original Terra Cotta warriors which was cool.
After the museum, we had lunch at a traditional Chinese restaurant and headed to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. This structure is actually a Buddhist temple built on a site where a goose dropped dead after monks prayed for meat (go figure!) We ended the day with a traditional dinner of dumplings and had the opportunity to sample around 25 different types. After dinner, we watched a traditional Tang dynasty singing and dancing show where the performers used musical instruments and costumes from that era. After the performance, time to crash. Tomorrow, it’s a visit to see the Terre Cotta warriors…

Confucian Temple, Confucius Statue

Summer Palace

Greg at the Bird's Nest

Lama Temple

In Greg's Own Words

China Travel Journal

Monday June 15th
WE took off from O’Hare to Beijing around 1:00 PM Chicago time and flew over Green Bay, into Canada, Hudson Bay, the polar ice cap, crossed the international date line, south through Siberia, and into China. We arrived around 3:30 PM local time, a 13 hour flight. On the ground, there were a plethora of checkpoints where travelers had temperatures checked searching for unfortunate souls with H1 N1 virus. We were all lucky!!!

Tuesday June 16th (Beijing Time)
After arrival at the hotel (REALLY NICE PLACE) we ate dinner at a Chinese buffet which did not resemble the China buffet in Danville at all. Following dinner, myself and two of my fellow traveler, Noah and Loren, headed out to Tiananmen Square for our first glimpse of Chinese culture (and Mao). We were amazed at the amount of construction going on at 9:00 in the evening and how so many workers were working on so little. Following some pictures, I headed back to try and get some sleep and combat jet lag.

Wednesday June 17th
Jet lag is not fun…After sleeping for about one hour on the plane, I was up at 4:00 am. My roommate Jerry was up as well so we decided to head to Tiananmen Square for the flag-raising ceremony. I got some pictures and video but, overall, the flag-raising experience was a bit overrated. Following the ceremony, we walked around a bit to get a feel for Beijing. We walked around the square and say Mao’s mausoleum and the Hall of the People.
We then returned to the hotel and met up with the rest of the group. After breakfast, we returned to Tiananmen Square and visited the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City was spectacular! It was the residence of all Chinese emperors during the Ming and Qing dynasties. The architecture was incredible and the gardens were quite impressive. I’ll try and post a few more pictures…
Following the Forbidden City, we visited the Temple of Heaven which was also built during the Ming Dynasty. Its purpose was for the emperor to make offerings to the gods in order to ensure a good harvest. We closed the day with a dinner of Beijing Duck which was interesting but good. It’s roasted duck served on Pita bread with sauce. It’s not back to the hotel where I’ll try and crash….

Thursday June 18th
Jet lag still has me!!! I woke up around 4:30 am and tossed and turned until 5:00 am. At that point, I decided to stop trying to fight sleep so I went for a morning run. I ran to Tiananmen Square, around the square, and back for a grand total of about 5 miles. I was amazed at the amount of work being done to the street and sidewalks. I have to laugh that out of 7 workers, only one is really doing any work…I am also amazed at the strong police and military presence around the square. Don’t piss and soldiers off!
After some eats, we headed for the Great Wall on an overcast, humid, rainy day. As we left Beijing and got closer to the wall, I was shocked at how hilly/mountainous the landscape became so quickly. As we near the wall, it starts to rain harder. Nice. We took a gondola to the top as it takes about 3 hours to hike to the wall (next time I’ll hike to it!) The gondola ride was quite impressive in spite of my desire to hike to the top. I spite of the rain, it was truly impressed by the wall and its grandeur. It is truly built on a mountain. How it could have been built using 12 century technology is beyond me. The rain put visibility at about 50 meters at most so I couldn’t see the entire scope of the wall (bummer!) The mist did give the experience an other-worldly ambiance however. I could almost see Mongols invading through the mist…
Following the great wall, we grabbed some lunch and headed out to the Ming tombs. The tombs were built as burial grounds for the Ming emperors, relatives, and concubines (bad to be a concubine as you were buried with the emperor alive!) The tombs had some elaborate statures and were an excellent example of Ming ere architecture. We closed the day with an Acrobatics Show in Beijing. It was a mix between Chinese Cirque de Sole and America’s Got Talent. Overall, quite entertaining.

Friday, June 19th
Today turned out to be a simply amazing day. This was our first free day so it was our first day of the trip where we were truly on our own. We started the day with a trip to Tiananmen Square to visit Mao’s who has been embalmed for 33 years inside his mausoleum. Overall, the old man looks pretty good…I was surprised at the amount of reverence the Chinese still show towards Mao as there were thousands of flowers laid by his tomb. I actually got to go through the tomb twice. I didn’t know that to see the museum inside you had to get a ticket outside the tomb. The tickets were free but I had to go through the process a second time anyway. Go Communism!!!
Following Mao, our little group of Americans in China split up as some of us headed to the Lama Temple while others went to other destinations. The Lama Temple is the largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery outside of Tibet. Walking in, you could tell the place had an incredibly spiritual vibe. Too cool. There were a number of monks inside and a plethora of Chinese burring incense and praying to a variety of Tibetan Buddhist gods. I wasn’t supposed to take pictures inside but I snuck a bunch. What a rebel! The highlight is the largest wooden Buddha in the world that stands about 40 meters tall. How I wanted to rub its belly….
We searched for a restaurant and went to a little place outside of the monastery. It’s always a fun experience to point to something in the menu and have no idea what you are ordering. Luckily, all of the food was excellent. We ate some time of beef stew, an egg and chicken dish, and a chicken stew/soup that was crazy hot but really good. We stupid tourists didn’t know that everything was served family style so we had WAY too much food! Nonetheless, we spent around $7 a piece. I love a good exchange rate!!!!
After lunch my group got a bit lost trying to find the Confucius Temple and Imperial college (not my fault; I told my group the right way to go but they insisted on going the opposite. Women….) Ultimately, getting momentarily lost was the best thing that could have happened as a number of serendipitous experiences began to occur. We reconnected with a number of people in our tour group including Richard Bohr (he is professor of Chinese studies at St. John’s University in St. Paul. The guy is fluent in Chinese and absolutely brilliant. He is the master, I am the grasshopper….) On our way to the temple, we ran into a bunch of middle school Chinese students. Let me tell you, in China, Americans are rock stars. The students wanted to talk our pictures and talk to us constantly. When they found out we were teachers, they were blown away. I must have answered 576 questions about American culture, schools, basketball, you name it, in 15 minutes. Cool experience….
When we finally arrived at the Confucian Temple, I was amazed at the vibe that permeated from the place. I can’t way I have ever bought into Feng Shui but the entire temple simply had this aura about it that I can’t put into words. You could almost feel the spirit of the thousands of past Confucian scholars who studies there. The architecture was fabulous as were the ancient Confucian artifacts and texts present there.
The day concluded with a final run in with serendipity. As we were leaving the temple, the aforementioned Richard Bohr struck up a conversation with a street vendor who was selling “authentic Confucian calligraphy”. Richard then told us that the old man wanted us to accompany him to his home. Me, always the skeptic, saw red flags waving everywhere as I was expecting to get ripped-off, mugged, or get my kidneys sold on the Chinese black market. I reluctantly accompanied my group to this man’s residence, a small room 10 ft by 10 ft in a Hutong or small Chinese residential street. Basically, the street and his room looked like a dive. We enter the small, cramped, humid room and he instructs us to sit on his bed or wherever we can find room. As Richard begins talking to him, some amazing revelations are revealed. This man was once a Profession of Calligraphy at Beijing University. Our guess was that during the Cultural Revolution, he was persecuted and banished to the countryside. He simply had the look of a weathered man who took all that life can throw at you and then some. He also revealed that he was currently teaching at a middle school in spite of the fact that he is 77 years old. We sat, talked, laughed, and ate watermelon that his neighbor brought in for us for around two hours as the old man made beautiful calligraphy works for us. I had him write “Olivia” and he explained the Chinese meaning to me. I even got the entire event recorded. Overall, a simply excellent day.

Saturday June 20
Today we checked out of our hotel in Beijing and will leave for Xian on an overnight train tonight. After checkout, we went to the summer palace, yet another playground for Chinese emperors. This was build during the Qing dynasty (the last one before overthrow by the republic of Sun Yat Sen) and is very similar to Ming architecture. We went on a boat ride around Lake Kunming and got a good vantage point of the palace. Following the boat ride, we went on a tour of the Olympic Venues including the Bird’s Nest and Water Cube where Michael Phelps won 837 gold medals. We ended the day at the Wang-fu-jing business district where I bought my girls, Apryl and Olivia, pearl necklaces. The girls should be happy! At 9:00 PM we boarded an overnight train to Xian, home of the Terre Cotta warriors…

More Pictures

Greg sent two more pictures to share. Enjoy!

Winter Palace

Forbidden City

Pictures

Finally some pictures!!

Unfortunately he's only sent two so far. He has a much better internet connection at his current hotel, so he is planning on sending me a post for all of you to read soon. He arrived in Xi'an via an overnight train. He is really looking forward to seeing the Terra Cottta Warriors tomorrow. Hope to post more soon!

Greg at the Great Wall

Me and Mao

Beijing

Hello students, family, and friends! This is actually Apryl (Mrs. Swyn) writing for Greg. He is experiencing the communist government first hand....they have his blog blocked! He wants to apologize for the lack of posts, but his hotel has had terrible wireless internet access. Olivia and I have only talked to him once and gotten one e-mail, which I will include excerpts of. He hopes his next hotel provides him the opportunity to send more e-mails (so I can post them on this blog) and send pictures, which he says he would love to share with everyone!

So, a summary of Beijing...

Day One (6/17/2009): Tiananmen Square at night and during the daytime, the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, and a traditional Peking Roast Duck dinner. For those of you who know Greg well, and know that he is NOT a morning person, this will confirm how much he is suffering from jet lag. "I was wiped but had jet lag so bad, my roomate and I got up at 4:00 am and went to the flag raising at Tiannamen Sq." Note: 4 am!! As his wife, I am shocked!!! Aside from that, I don't know about his experiences at any of these places. He'll have to fill all you loyal readers in when he returns.

Day Two (6/18/2009): The Great Wall was "so amazing but so disappointing....It was rainy and foggy we could only see about 50 yards." He also went to a Cloisonne Factory, which he said was incredible. They were making beautiful statues out of the cloisonne. He would have loved to purchase one, but wasn't sure how to get it back here safely. They were also told they could find them cheaper in other places. He also went to the Ming Tombs and an Acrobatic Show. I can't wait to hear details about the Acrobatic Show!! His day ended with a visit to a night market. "I was at the night market in Beijing. Can you say total Andrew Zimmern from the Travel Channel? There were fried scorpions, fried starfish, fried silkworms, you name it...I think I smelled stinky tofu as well. Absolutely rank!"

Day Three (6/19/2009): Free Study Day. He went with a guy in his tour group who speaks fluent Chinese. I believe he is a professor of Chinese in Minnesota.
"So yesterday was amazing. It was our first free study day. I went to Mao's tomb (twice, long story) and got to see the embalmbed Mao Tse Tong followed by the Mao museum. Pretty cool. From there, I went to the Lama Temple, the largest Tibetan Buddhist monestary outside of Tibet. So cool....you'd love it. Huge pagoda type structures, monks burning inscence, and the largest carved wooden Buddha in the world (about 40 feet tall, I thing). The whole place had such a peaceful atmosphere. Lunch on our own was interesting...Got to order something that I had no idea what it was. We manged to luck out, however and got some really good Chinese food which was a bit different than China Buffet. I ordered a beef stew, someone else in my group had this chicken dish that was CRAZY spicy, and someone else got this egg and chicken thing. It's served family style so when it was all said and done, we had WAY too much food. The waitresses must have thought we were idiots...

From there, we hit the Confucian Temple where Chinese scholars have taken Confucian governmental entrance exams since about 1300. Unreal...such an amazing setting. It oozed history and had such a great vibe. You have to see my pictures.

The highlight of the day came on a whim and I wound up getting Olivia the coolest gift ever. I'll try to make this brief and I could describe the situation better over Skype but I'll try...For most of the day, I was with Richard Borer, the chinese language prof. (brilliant guy) On our way out of the temple, this old chinese guy approaches him and they start talking. He has some caligraphy that he wants to sell us...I'm thinking great, more street vendor crap. Richard then tells us that this guy is a teacher and he wants us to follow him to his house. Again, I'm REALLY skeptical...but our group follows him. His place is this little dive of an apartment if you can call it that. It was all of 10 x 10 feet with a little desk and a bed. To make a long story short, turns out this guy was a professor of caligraphy at Beijing University. I have him write Olivia's name and he makes this beautiful poster. What's cool is that I have the whole process videotaped with him explaining what everything means. Unreal experience!"

Those are the adventures thus far for Mr. Swyn. Stay tuned, and hopefully we'll get to hear more frequently about his travels around China!

I'm waiting in O'Hare airport gearing up for a 13 hour flight. Fun stuff....I should land in Beijing around 3:00 PM Tuesday. Hopefully, there won't be any swing flu quarantines...

Two days before I leave! Here are the cities and hotels I will be staying if you want to check them out...

Beijing; June 16-20: Beijing Jianguo Garden Hotel- www.jianguogardenhotel.com
Xi'an; June 21-23: Titan Times Hotel- www.titantimeshotel.com
Kunming; June 24-25: New Era Hotel- www.erahotel.cn
Dali; June 26: The Regent Hotel- www.regenthotel.cn
Lijiang; June 27-28: Golden Spring Hotel- http://lj.jqhotel.cn/contact_en-us.php
Zhongdian; June 29-30: Holy Palace Hotel- www.ynlfx.com
Shanghai; July 1-3: Holiday Inn Downtown Shanghai- http://ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/hi/1/en/hotel/shgdt

Swyn's trip to China will begin on June 15th with a flight from O'Hare Airport in Chicago to Beijing, China.