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Five continents down, two to go: The Albino Bowler goes to China

June 19, 2010 Category: Albino Bowler 1 Comment »

Every once in a while, something happens while on a trip that makes it memorable… and maybe not in the best way. Well, this was one of those trips, and what happened was we (and by we I mean ‘I’) left one of our cameras on a plane; and two weeks worth of pictures are forever gone. Luckily we had two cameras, but as is always the case, there were lots of memories on that camera that we didn’t get with the other. So to my friends in China; Lily, Mr. Yung, and Kevin specifically whose pictures would have appeared here, I apologize. Those memories will be with Holly and I forever, but unfortunately no one else will get to share them with us. That being said, we did get some great pictures of us, and great pictures of the Albino Bowler… so lets continue.

My wife and I have been talking about going to China for some time, and this spring we finally made it. Of course the Albino Bowler wouldn’t miss a trip like this, so he tagged along as well. As exciting as China sounds, if we’re completely honest, China was a bit intimidating at first. For starters, it is completely on the other side of the planet from where we live, and secondly it seems their culture is so vastly different than ours that you really just don’t know what to expect. After having been there though, I can say that there is nothing to be worried about. We found the Chinese people to be as friendly and accommodating as any people we’ve ever met; and while their culture is very different from ours, it is a very colorful and interesting one. If you’re interested in history, this is a great place for it… because they have a LOT of it.

To start off the trip, my wife and I flew in to Beijing. We got to visit such famous places as Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Olympic Park, and several other places. We also got to spend a morning at the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall; and yes, it is as impressive as you would imagine it is. As you’re standing on the wall, it stretches as far as the eye can see in both directions like a ribbon laying across the mountains. After returning the from Great Wall, we stopped by the Olympic Park and saw the buildings where a lot of the 2008 Summer Olympics were held including the Birds Nest and the Water Cube. Michael Phelps should be proud. The Olympic Park was really a neat place. They have music playing and families were there walking around together, playing games and flying kites. It is the kind of place you could just mill around people watching for hours. If you do decide to hang around, prepare to feel like celebrity… people will want to have their picture made with you! This was quite entertaining. Our guide Lily explained that a lot of Chinese people come here from towns well off the tourist circuit and consider it a souvenir to take home a picture of themselves with a westerner.

Leaving by train from Beijing, our next stop was Xi’an, which is the closest big city to the terracotta warriors. If you’re not familiar with the terracotta soldiers, the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, spent a lot of his time as emperor preparing for his own death. As part of this preparation, he had an army of literally thousands of clay soldiers built to protect what would later be his tomb. This, to me, was absolutely fascinating. The army was completely destroyed less than a year after the emperor’s death and then rediscovered in 1974 by a farmer, who was actually at the museum the day we were visiting (‘No Pictures Please’). Since the rediscovery, a painstaking process has been underway to reconstruct and preserve the warriors.

The next stop on our China adventure was a city named Chengdu. The major draw to this city for us was the fact that there is a Panda Breeding and Research Center there, and what trip to China would be complete without a panda encounter of some sort? To get the most out of our panda experience, Holly and I signed up for their ‘International Internship’ program, which ended up being our favorite day in China. For starters you get to go behind the scenes and meet the pandas. We then went into the panda enclosures (with the pandas elsewhere) and cleaned up their bamboo scraps so they could be weighed. Next, the pandas were moved from their cages to the enclosures.. and it was cage cleaning time! Yep.. we cleaned up panda poo… it was all in the name of good science though as the poo is collected and weighed and compared to the amount of food that was given / left over to get a good gauge as to how much the pandas were eating. The one positive to the whole thing is that the pandas eat bamboo almost exclusively, so their poo doesn’t really stink that bad. Holly about lost it once… but we were good after that. In addition to the cleanup duties we also got to prepare their food AND feed it to them, and yes… we got to have our pictures made touching one. That in and of itself made the whole thing worth it. Randomly enough, while were at the Panda Breeding Center they were filming The Amazing Race ‘China Rush’ there! How cool is that? We actually had a really great picture of my wife with the Albino Bowler and an Amazing Race clue card that one of the contestants had left behind, not to mention better pictures of him and a panda… but yeah… those were on the other camera. Very cool experience to say the least!

The last stop in China for us was Lhasa, in the beautiful Tibetan Autonomous Region. Visiting Tibet has been a dream of mine for some time, and I was not let down at all. Remove the political pretense, and this is one of the most beautiful and interesting places we’ve been. While in Lhasa we got the chance to visit the stunning Potala Palace and several other sites of religious significance to the Tibetan people and we got to sit in on a debate between the monks in a courtyard at the Sera Monastery. We had no idea what they were arguing about, but it was clear that they were very adamant about the stances they were taking! Also in Lhasa I continued a growing trend in my travel experiences… I got sick! The 11,600 foot elevation got to me the third day we were there and it turned a fun experience into a very scary one… luckily though it was the day before we left, and the cure for altitude it going to a lower altitude… and that we did!

We’re done with China, but stay tuned because our travels are not over yet; next we head to Kathmandu in Nepal!

– Dan Thompson