China 2008

The last time I visited China was in 2004. My husband and I were there for 3 months during winter, visiting his family in Beijing. This time we went for 3 weeks, during early autumn. Not only was the weather totally different, a lot had changed in four years - especially in preparation for hosting the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

13 September - 16 September

We left New Zealand at 3am in the morning on Saturday. We had a short stopover in Brunei then flew to Hong Kong to visit a friend. Sunday was spent travelling: we took two trains and a plane to get to Beijing and arrived at about midnight. Monday we rested and visited family. On Tuesday we visited the Paralympics and saw the Birds Nest and the Water Cube and we had tickets to the Bronze Medal men's wheelchair basketball match between Great Britain and USA. That was awesome.

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  The Bird's Nest
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  The Water Cube
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  The Indoor Stadium
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  Wheelchair Basketball
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  Black Bamboo Park
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  Street Restaurant

17 September - 20 September

On Wednesday morning we flew to Xi'an in Shaanxi province, south west of Beijing. Xi'an has a long history and we visited several parks associated with various emperors. My favourite place was the mausoleum of QinShihuang (the first Emperor of China) - most famous for the Terracotta Army. They think there are about 8000 terracotta warriors and horses, each one unique with individual facial expressions. I was also impressed with the high wall surrounding the inner city of Xi'an with guard towers and a moat. And one evening we visited a lovely park to see the water show - hundreds of spouts of water shooting into the air in beautiful patterns in time to music and with coloured lights illuminating the scene. The only thing I didn't like about Xi'an was the traffic - absolute chaos!

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  The Terracotta Army
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  The Terracotta Horses
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  Lishan
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  Beilin
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  Water Show
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  Water Show

21 September - 5 October

Back in Beijing, we spent quite a lot of time visiting my husband's family. It was great to see them all again, even though I can't speak enough Mandarin to communicate with them fully. For some reason, every time I said "chi bao le" (which means "I'm full" after a meal) they thought it was hilarious. I hope I pronounced it right... Family reunions seem to involve lots of food and kareoke, lol. We had a good look around at the Summer Palace and the Botanic Gardens. Just before we left we visited the Beijing Zoo and saw lots of cute pandas and monkeys.

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  Summer Palace
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  Summer Palace
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  Botanic Garden
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  Monkey
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  Baby Pandas
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  Panda

On Friday the 3rd of October, we had an afternoon flight to Shenzhen, a city just across the border from Hong Kong. We stayed there overnight and then caught the train to Hong Kong. Our flight was in the afternoon on Saturday, with a very short stopover in Brunei, and we arrived back in Auckland, New Zealand on Sunday morning. And for a nice surprise, my Mum was at our house waiting for us.

Home sweet home.