It’s a wrap!!

Not much that you can say about the monotony of air travel, the lack of movement, the drone of the engines and airline food. Well actually you can say a bit. Our flight from Beijing to Vancouver was with Air China. Hey a good trip, edible food, lots of drink, helpful attendants and comfortable seats. Not too much wrong with this. The one blip on our return screen was at ( you guessed it) — Vancouver. Now in our three month sojourn we had spent time in airports all over Asia, and of course had to deal with all types of immigration and customs peoples, but I must say that all this went flawlessly, that is until we arrived into Vancouver. Our flight arrived about noon local time, and of course we were ushered down to customs and immigration — well what there was of it. In a fancy new facility with stations for 22 inspectors, there were five on duty. This at a time of day when flights were arriving every ten minutes. There is no possible way that those five inspectors could keep up with the arrivals, and in no time the very large waiting area was jammed with people. Now the admiral and I had about two and one half hours between our connecting flight to Victoria, and it started to look as though we might not make it. Add to this that we had to retrieve our luggage and then go back through security after taking our long-suffering luggage back to Air Canada for our fifteen minute jump over to Victoria.

While we were picking up our boarding passes from the Air Canada attendant, she pleasantly asked us how our day was going. Well you know what they say — if you don't want the answer, don't ask the question, and I mentioned that all was well until we arrived at customs and immigration, where there was a horrendous backlog. I also mentioned that we were nip and tuck for our flight because of the delay. The lady looked at me as the moron that I am, and carefully explained that it was always like this at that time of day, because there were so many flights arriving. Well duh to me. Even MacDonalds put on more staff at peak times, methinks.

My only suggestion is that anyone wishing to see the 2010 Olympics should start arriving now. By the time that they clear customs, they may make the venue that they wish to see.

Just had to get my annual bitch off my chest , but in fact it's been a blast — until the next time!!

And that's a wrap.

Beijing, as in China

Hard to say too much about Beijing, as we were on a power tour — two days to see it all — not going to happen. We did the best we could with what we had. I'll start off with how clean it is. Verrrry clean. Maybe the locals get incarcerated if they don't keep it clean, but for a city that has nearly the entire population of Canada, we could take some pointers. On the down side  — it was cool, much cooler than we had become accustomed to, and of course we had much previously send anything even looking like warm clothing, back to Canada. The cleverness of this is that it would also allow us to purchase additional new items to overfill our suitcases. After a quick run to a shopping center, we now have even more to bring back, however this will probably be on our backs.

Our first tour in China was to the Summer Palace. I guess that when you are Emperor and you get tired of your regular palace, you have but to command that another palace be built for a change of scenery. Bear in mind that this is in the same town, but maybe travel by rickshaw is not that comfortable. To keep palace A and palace B from being too much "same same", the summer palace was built by a lake. A small difficulty was that there was no lake nearby, but easily rectified by digging a hole, by hand, to a depth of about 10 feet, and covering several hundred acres. Now you have only to fill this with water and it becomes a lake. Simple eh? An added bonus is that the excavated dirt, when piled up high, very nearly becomes a mountain, and it is good luck to build a palace on a mountain. You might also build three island in your lake, as it is good luck to have visible islands in your lake and voila, you have it all. Now there is no point in having your own lake and not having your own boat, but maybe the emperor suffered a little "mal de mer" and so had his boat made of stone. This took a bit of the bounce out of the boat, but for those who wanted a feel of travel, a great mirror was erected on the upper deck, to catch the movement of the water below. This supposedly gave the feeling of movement.

It is amazing what you can do with unlimited funds and the patience of Job. Hiking the dirt from the lake up the side of the mountain that you are creating, in a couple of baskets on a balance pole, does not seem like fun — but then again, it only had to be fun for the emperor I guess.

The next day arrives and we are trying to cram the "must see" items into our remaining allotted time. We hired a car and driver, through the concierge, and head out. Our first stop — "The forbidden palace". Now in Beijing this is the palace of palaces. Huge would hardly describe the place, and the whole scam was for the exclusive use of the emperor. Well the emperor and his wives, well and his concubines, and maybe his poker buddies — but nay to mere mortals. It's just not that easy being emperor. Actually the last emperor spent most of his time in prison. He came to power at the age of four, I believe, so was somewhat lead about by his domineering mother. This gave her considerable power, which she obviously enjoyed. Not only did she chose his four wives, but she also picked out his many concubines. Now I saw photographs of these ladies, and if any of them were blind dates , they would best be described as having "wonderful personalities". Major lesson going on here — don't let your mother pick your dates, your wives, and particularly your concubines. Rumor had it that the emperor preferred the company of the eunuchs at any rate. At some point he must have become a tad more assertive, as his "mother dearest" had him placed under house arrest for ten years. He managed to get free about the time of the rise to power of good old Mao, who promptly had him placed under house arrest again. After a further ten years, Mao, in a moment of generosity, gave him his freedom. He took a look about, and shortly thereafter up and died.

From the forbidden palace we trundled on to Tiananmen Square , which looks much different without the tanks for crowd control. It is basically a large parade ground, surrounded by government offices. We didn't need to give this a big look, so set off for the "biggy" — The Great Wall of China.

We've all seen a hockey sock full of pictures of various parts of the great wall, but none of them are the same as being there. The wall was constructed of bricks laid in two walls, The gap in between (about 10 feet) was filled with earth and then topped with stone.These walls were some 15 to 20 feet high At strategic intervals, towers were constructed for a view of the surrounding area. All this in order to keep the Mongolian hordes at bay. The Mongolians must have been persistent rascals as well, for it took the Chinese 200 years to build the wall. I guess that you must take into consideration that the wall is approximately 7000 kilometers long, and oh yes, it is built along the peaks of the mountains. Nobody said that it would be easy — or quick. I would guess that it now attracts far more people than it repels, but it does take the breath away — or maybe it is the vertical climbing at high altitude. Definitely a sight to behold, and even better with Bonnie in the picture for a rare Kodak moment. Ignore the snowflakes, that is the best that Bonnie can smile when her teeth are chattering.

Back to Beijing to ready ourselves for the next day departure.