Brian (my companion on this little adventure, my

cousin Danielle's boyfriend, hence my "cousin Bryan"

moniker) did such a great job writing this up that I'm

gonna include his account below with just a few

additions of my own:



1) He doesn't mention the Acrobat show.  We got

general admission seats to this acrobat show in

Beijing.  It was done in something equivalent to my

old Jr High auditorium and was the plate spinning,

dozen people on a bicycle, balancing glasses while

doing somersaults kinda of acrobats, not the high-wire

type act.  The performers were probably jr high and/or

high school age, and about 1/2 the place was full with

Chinese students (appeared to be middle school age) in

their school uniforms.  Definately worth the $$ if you

have the time.



2) Food, he forgot cuttlefish (like squid also), fried

noodles (my breakfast staple), tea eggs (normal boiled

eggs, just boiled in tea instead of water) and another

unnamed preserved egg (not as bad as the 100 year -

this was more pickled and the yolk was red).  I would

order the foods a bit differently.  From worst on up

on the really "unusual" and not so good.



1) Bile wine

2) 1000 year egg

3) Blood wine

4) remnant soup

5) Duck feet



Everything else I had no issue with.  I actually liked

the beef stomach :)



3) Tokyo - I didn't hate it, but it was merely

interesting and not nearly as memorable as Beijing. 

If you like NYC, you'd enjoy it.  Unless you're more

adventurous then me, avoid the Shinjuko side streets

with nothing but pitchmen trying to get you to pay a

cover charge to come in a for a "show". :)  The only

real stares in Tokyo were when he wore his Bears

jersey and I my Red Wings jersey while walking around

the morning we left.



Pictures will be up on http://www.bryan-hart.com/ once

I get a chance to get through all them - I took around

200 in China and ZERO in Japan.  Hoping to get them

together by next Monday.



Bryan



----------- Brian's account --------------



There are vacations, and there are life experiences. 

And at short notice I

talked cousin Bryan (Also BDH) into going to China to

see the great wall

which was a life experience.  (This is up there with

Gunter saying yes to

"Hey do you want to go party in Tijijuana overnight?"

and Danielle saying

yes to heading into the jungle to see Mexican

pyramids.)



Our trip to China had a surprise bonus, which ended up

being incredibly

impactful;  Bryan has a great friend who lives in

Beijing that works for

Microsoft of all places.   This guy arranged for us to

have a hotel at 1/3rd

the cost (China resident discount, plus Microsoft

corporate rate), allowing

us to stay dirt cheap in downtown Beijing.  He also

arranged to have a

driver and car for us for 3 and 1/2 days while we were

there, which allowed

us to see twice as much stuff as regular tourists

trying to get around on

the bus systems.  Bryan's friend Bin was very cool to

hang with, and was a

great host and tour guide, and turned out to be

remarkably funny, helpful,

and hospitable.



CHINA SITES:



So we hit the ground running and saw every darn thing

there is to do in

Beijing for the most part, including:



Mao's Tomb, with a waxy looking Mao parked inside, one

of the historic

monuments right near the main downtown.



Tiananmen Square, the "hub" of the city where the

famous student vs. tanks

protest was.  Its an amazing place, situated between

their main museum, the

Grand Hall (their capital building), Mao's tomb, and

the Forbidden City

(Imperial Palace).



Forbidden Palace (See "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon"

or the "Last

Emperor"), which is the former palace grounds for all

ruling class in China,

and is stunningly beautiful with throne rooms so

ornate I cannot describe

it, and wide authentic patios and architecture.



JinJang Park:    Overlooking the forbidden city, this

hilly park is also the

highest point in Beijing and offers panoramic pictures

of the city, with

sweeping views in every direction.



Heavenly Park:    One of the larger parks south of the

city, it was a ritual

location for years, and was the extension of the

forbidden city in terms of

religious importance.  Several more throne areas and

celebration locations,

very beautiful.



THE GREAT WALL:  The reason for this trip was the

great wall, so our driver

took us to Badaling, 44 miles out of the city to see

the Great Wall and walk

among it.  It is a beautiful and amazing site, to sit

on the great wall,

overlooking rolling hills... and finding your Zen

spot.  I cant describe it

either, and wont even try, but it was the best part of

the trip by far.

Near the great wall we also visited more tombs, the

underground tombs of the

13 warriors.



Small Towns / Farmhouses:    We got our driver to take

us to small towns

outside of "the cracker districts" way out where to

see how the remote

villages look... and even went so far as to have him

talk our way into a

remote farmer's house, where we got a tour, and some

food, and some dirty

tea from a dirty cup.  It was great to experience.



Lama Temple:    Worthy of note as it was the most

stunning Temple, housing

an ornate 60 foot tall golden Buddha, with all the

decor and trimmings one

can imagine.  It is so colorful and beautiful that you

can hardly take it

all in and categorize it in your head.   It was one of

many temples we saw.



Summer Palace:    Built around a lake, not far from

Beijing is the royal

summer palace which is gaudy and grandeur all by

itself.  Many ornate

buildings, hallways, temples, and testaments to

centralized wealth are

there.   (They actually forfeited building up their

Navy and military in

favor of building this structure up, and then promptly

got their tails

kicked by Japan.)



We also got to visit their numerous markets, stores,

neighborhoods (such as

Old Beijing), neon district, and restaurants!!!



FOOD, A MUST READ!!!!!



We ventured out with the mantra of being sure to try

EVERY crazy food we

could get our hands on, and believe me, we DID.   I am

an adventurous eater,

and expected Bryan to throw up the white flag, but

nothing phased him, and

he was able to keep more quantity of the crazy foods

down than I was, which

I never thought I would see in my lifetime from

anyone, anywhere.  Here is a

list of some of the foods we had in China, topped by

the very worst items

first.   (DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU ARE SQUEAMISH)



Absolute Worst:    1000 year eggs;  As the name sounds

like, they take

perfectly good eggs and bury them in the ground for

months and months... and

dig them up after they are rotten.  Literally, these

eggs were moldy and

fungus covered on the shell, and the inside was a

congealed, rotting,

decomposing egg, colored brown, blue, and black.  It

was a horrible thing to

eat, but we did.   (Most of the bad foods I needed a

tea and rice chaser)



Next in line:    Turtle blood and bile.  We ordered

turtle at one

restaurant, and they brought the little dude out in a

bucket for us to see.

(Like I know a bad turtle from a good turtle).  So we

nodded and they carted

it off.  First they slit it's neck and drained blood

into a glass, which

they mixed with a hard rice alcohol and presented to

us.  Next they took out

the bile, and in the same manner, presented it to us. 

So we had bright red

nasty blood and a bright green nasty bile drink to get

through, which we

both drank.  Believe me when I tell you, you really

need to concentrate on

not concentrating when you drink something like these.

  It IS as horrible

as it sounds.



3rd Worst:    DOG!!!  We went to a nice restaurant

that specializes in

family pets, and ordered a big batch of roasted dog

stew.  This was very

surreal, and would have been THE grossest thing on the

list by far, except

it tasted GREAT, like a flavorful beef roast.  It

included meat and bones,

and some internal organs which I couldn't identify. 

(Note , that one of the

items on the menu translates to "innards" as a direct

translation.



4th worst:    Slimy duck feet appetizer served cold,

with a mustard sauce.

Not even cooked, rather pickled, these chewy slimy

duck feet were disgusting

even drowned in mustard.  There wasn't enough sauce or

beer in the world to

make these things appetizing.



5th worst:    "Remnant soup" after ordering and

getting some duck, we were

presented with a white soup, made of the duck

"remnants" which are the duck

organs blended with cream.   Tasted good, just didn't

like the thought!



6th worst:    Beef stomach soup, which was like

rubbery white sandpaper.

Nuff said.



We also ate:



Dried fish

Eel

Welk (like squid)

Squid (like Welk)

Shrimp

Beijing Duck

Mushrooms

Gelatinous Veggies (literally a hard jello like thing

with veggies in it).

Makes you wish it was fruitcake!

Soups of all kinds:    remnant, Miso, eggdrop,

seafood, innards

Dumplings / Dimsum

Pastries / Chinese Doughnuts

Fried Rice (With every meal)

Mandarin oranges (which ironically are not as good as

the US version)

Curry beef

Braised Chicken

Spicy Rabbit (BEST DISH WE HAD)

Shredded stringy pork

Raw beef and lamb dipped (to cook) in a fondue soup

dish, which was

wonderful.

Pan Cakes (like a samosa)

China Beer (was great, even served warm)

Tea, everywhere, everytime.

Unique red pepper potato chips



WORTHY OF NOTE:



They constantly covered our jackets and bags at the

restaurants with

slipcovers, so pickpocketers couldn't get our items.



We got very tired of hearing vendors yell HELLO

everytime we walked by.  It

was like 100 parrots in our ears.



There is no skyline in Beijing, just a huge flat city

of 25 story buildings,

mostly apartments.



Beijing is dirty as a city due to everyone burning

coal, and lack of street

washing implements.   There is a smell in that town

that you get used to

after a couple of days.



We saw so many sites, that eventually the driver

revolted and demanded more

money for driving "too far, too much".



We were completely invisible to everyone in the city,

except to women ages

14-24 who would come up and chat with us and get their

pictures taken with

us.   I probably greeted over 100 males, none of which

even acknowledged

that I had spoken to them.  I went so far as to block

their path, and not

even that would work.  (Caveat is police and military

which are EVERYWHERE,

who stared us up and down every single time.)



PingPong:    I managed to talk my way into a ping pong

game in Beijing

(where the sport is at a higher level than in the US)

to play the winner,

and the ensuing battle was one of my highlights. The

first game this guy was

doing all that crazy playing and crushed me badly, but

in the second game I

figured out his spins, and came back to beat him, and

then won the rubber

match easily.



I did a 180 change of opinion on china after being

there.  The people are

beautiful, friendly, and open for the most part, and

it is a great place to

vacation.  (But a loooong trip).



TOKYO



We had a long layover in Tokyo, so we took a bus into

the downtown area, to

the famous neon high-rise zone of Shinjuku, where we

walked the streets for

miles taking in the sights.   Had authentic sushi at a

back alley sushi

restaurant, which was a great meal, complete with

Sapporo, Sake, etc...   I

even got the WASABI yelling going back and forth like

the commercial we have

in the states, but then got a bunch of Wasabi dumped

on my plate.    We went

to Tokyo tower to see the entire city (an exact

rip-off of the Eiffel

tower), took a subway, played Pachinko, saw a karaoke

bar (but did not sing)

and basically did the town for a bit.     Overall we

HATED Tokyo.  They can

keep that city.