This time I am actaully starting at the end of the trip so the sequence will start at the beginning, once I get it added and require a few blogs. So, after a week in Beijing, we left on Friday morning by train to go to Chengde (pronounced Cheng-duh). We wanted to go to Chengde to see the very old (hundreds of years)temples so we also stayed in a Buddhist monastery that had been converted to a hotel. In the pictures, the red double doors were the doors to our suite. Chinese furniture is very beautiful but also very uncomfortable. The bed are only somewhat softer than Nigerian foam mattress.
It was quite beautiful with antique Chinese furnishings and all the very young staff were dressed in beautiful Tibetan costumes. No one there spoke English and actually I don't think we found anyone in Chengde that spoke English. They served Chinese breakfast buffet. At dinner, they were having a special program that was so loud we couldn't think much less eat so we requested room service.
We only had time to visit two temples. It takes a long time to visit a temple. You enter through a portal into a compound with several buildings. The main building is usually straight ahead and after you visit the main building you leave at the back and enter another portal, and this goes on and on, and in Chengde was also on a hill so we were continuing to climb higher and higher. The temples were very beautiful and one had a Buddah so tall they had to build a very tall building for him. The temples in Chengde were not nearly as well maintained which Chris though added to their charm.
Since the train is about four hours, we only had a half day on Friday and another on Saturday morning. Apparently not a lot of tourists go there because we really stood out like a sore thumb where ever we went. One of the funniest of those times was the day we were leaving, we took a cab back into the main part of town near the train station and wanted to check our email. (Buddhist monasteries do not have wi-fi.) So, we walked around until we found a signal a couple blocks from the train station and got a signal and connected. We had the baby Dell, only 4 lbs so we are standing on the sidewalk and a crowd starts to gather around us. There was actually one young Chinese woman who spoke English and wanted to know what we were doing. We told her we were checking email and she didn't know what that was, but for most of the people in the crowd, we were pretty sure they had never seen a computer before.
Before we took the cab into town, we took a walk in a residential part of town just up from the hotel. It was very interesting to see how and where people lived. We met a lot of parents with children. I loved the little Chinese children but they were mostly afraid of me. Here in Lagos, the little children usually like me.
We arrived back in Beijing and had arranged to stay at a hotel out by the airport since our flight was leaving at 6:30 a.m. on Sunday morning. It was a huge hotel and we thought we might be the only guests. That was rather wierd. Needless to say, we got up very early on Sunday and started our journey back to Lagos. I thought it was such a great schedule to leave Beijing at 6:30 a.m. and arrive Lagos at 7:30 p.m. but I was not taking into consideration there was a seven hour time difference plus we had at least two hours in Dubai when we changed planes. But I stayed awake, alert and fairly functional for entire time. It was a truly great trip.
Having started at the end, I will work my way up to the beginning.
Love to all,
Chris & Donnie
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