It's as EASY as ABC: Acrobatic Show, Birthday, China's Capital... CK Takes Beijing

Before I begin about Tuesday’s adventure, I would like to take a moment to vent about the general attitudes of the parents (including my very own mom and dad). As a student on SAS, I had traveled 9 other countries before China. That being said, an awareness formed in which I had come to terms with the fact that that other countries do things differently than the United States… this doesn’t make one country’s execution better or worse, they are just different. I eventually (and luckily it was early on in the day) came to the realization that the parents weren’t trying to get on my nerves, nor were they intentionally being culturally insensitive, but rather they didn’t know any better. For me, this awareness blossomed after traveling several countries, thus I needed to be patient with my parents in allowing this transformation to occur.

Tuesday April 3^rd

We were off bright and early to conquer the capital of China, Beijing! Beijing is home to 20 million people and the famous sites in Beijing include: Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City, and finally the Great Wall of China. Additionally, the 2008 summer Olympics took place in Beijing. Let me make a side note that unlike normal circumstances it was the parents complaining about the 8:00 AM departure time, not the kids… well would you look at that, SAS really does change a person ;)

Our first stop on our tour de Beijing was Tiananmen Square. Tiananmen Square is the largest square in the world… to give you an idea of how big it is… it is about equal to putting 24 soccer fields together! The square is best known for the following:

• Originally the entrance to the imperial palace in the Ming and Qing dynasties
• In 1949, founding leader Mao Zedong declared the People’s Republic of China
• Demonstrations by college aged students in 1989 for political reform and freedom of the press

The cool part about seeing Tiananmen Square is that I felt my history books coming to life… over the years I have learned about the square never once dreaming that I would one day walk around, yet here I was in China at Tiananmen Square!

Aside from the Klein family photo opts, the entire group (about 85 of us) stopped in the middle of the square to take a group picture… boy do “the Americans” know how to cause a scene! I felt like we were stars… everyone wanted to take the picture of the BIG (not only in numbers, but probably in pounds as well) American group! We even had a few that wanted to get in with the group… a lot of my friends get annoyed when people want to take pictures of the big bad Americans, but I on the other hand embrace it… honestly, I come storming into all these countries, having no problem taking photos of their culture, it is the least I can do to allow them to snap a photo of me.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a copy of the group photo… but here is proof that the Klein’s did in fact make it to the Square.

Additionally, check out the size of this TV in the middle of the Square… puts the Dallas Cowboys Stadium’s Big Screen to SHAME!

The Square is situated directly in front of the Forbidden City… not surprisingly; this was our next stop on the adventure. The Forbidden City was home to the Emperor, back in the day, one had to be invited to enter the city and once they entered they were never allowed to leave! Ahhh a bit creepy!

While walking through the Forbidden City, we learned about the superstitions of the Chinese culture… I always thought my dad was obsessive with his lucky numbers, but it seems the Chinese are just as obsessed… perhaps this is where Andy learned it? I’ll provide a few of the noteworthy numbers and their meanings:

• The number 8 is seen as generating wealth. An example of the number 8 in action includes the 2008 Summer Olympics --- Do you think it was a coincidence that the games began on August 8, 2008 at 8:08 PM (well that is a whole bunch of CrAzY 8s!)
• The number 3 is considered a lucky number in the Chinese culture as well… any other number in which 3 is a factor is also considered a lucky number 

As we walked through the Forbidden City, Lisa, our tour guide, pointed to the roofs of the buildings to show us the little dragons sitting on top… they are always placed in an odd number arrangement since this is considered to be a lucky number

Another aspect of Chinese culture that we learned about was how to identify the difference between a male and female lion. I shall explain and provide pictures below just incase you ever encounter this question on a game show! Remember, if this contributes to ANY success in your future; please give me a portion of your winnings ;)

A boy lion is always on the left side when walking out of the building and under his left paw is a ball that symbolizes fortunate

On the right side is always the girl lion and under her right paw is a cub! An easy way to remember this is that Girls are always RIGHT so she is on the RIGHT hand side…

A few of my friends were on another SAS trip and it just so happened that we ran into them in the Forbidden City… let me just tell you that Jilly was beside herself, “What are the chances that you would run into your SAS friends here?” Oooo the magic of Semester at Sea, poor Jilly doesn’t understand that this happens in every country, even if you don’t travel with SAS people you still run into them ;)

After a significant amount of time in the Forbidden City, we were back on the bus and off to our next adventure… visiting a home of local people in Beijing followed by the Rickshaw ride. The tour of the home is not worth “blogging home about” as honestly it felt like A HUGE TOURIST TRAP! We all walked away just confused why we spent our time in this home. The rickshaw ride on the other hand was a lot of fun…

Almost BIRTHDAY King Andy rides in his Chariot… I mean rickshaw

After our Rickshaw adventure we went to a restaurant for lunch followed by touring the Temple of Heaven… another one of those “must see sights in Beijing” You will notice that at this point in my pictures Andy is MIA as he felt it was imperative that he rest up for the next day (his birthday!)

While at the Temple of Heaven we had our very own Tai Chi lesson… Tai Chi is a type of internal martial arts that is used for self-defense and also provides health benefits. Obviously this was quite the sight in terms of watching CK and Jilly perform a task that yearns for coordination…

After our work-out, we were back on the bus and headed to the Silk Factory. Mom and I enjoyed learning the silk making process, however we didn’t care for this stop, as it was certainly one of those tourist traps where they were pouncing on every opportunity to make you purchase something! Oy vey!

At least Patty had fun playing on the silk ;)

Once leaving the silk factory, it was time to impress Jilly with my developing bargaining skills at the Pearl Market. The Pearl Market has just about anything and everything you can imagine… loaded with fake purses, backpacks, clothing, jewelry, electronics, and more… you name it, they sold it! As my mom and I navigated from one vendor to the next, I showed her the ropes on bargaining… I am still shocked that a vendor was trying to charge me $30 for a China magnet and mini flag… like a champion, I was able to hassle them down to a mere $2! Let me just tell you, Jilly was more than impressed ;)

Look at our precious Panda hats that I was able to bargain to $1 each…

If you would like lessons on how to haggle please contact me… remember, your first lesson will be bargaining the price of the class ;)

After the bargaining extravaganza it was time for an authentic Chinese dinner of Peking Duck… if you know me by now, you can only imagine how I felt about this meal... let’s just say I greatly enjoyed my white rice!

Wednesday April 4^th (ANDY’S BIRTHDAY)

Andy was in for a treat for his birthday, for he got to be at The Great Wall of China. Had we told him 6 months prior that this would be where he would be spending his birthday, I am fairly certain he would have laughed right in our faces. I guess that’s just the way life really is… you never know what’s going to hit you next! (Dam I am getting profound!)

I cannot even begin to describe to you the beauty of this Wonder of the World (The Great Wall of China) it is truly breathtaking... Our tour guide suggested that everyone take the Gondola ride up to walk around the wall and then if we were adventuresome to take the toboggan down… although we were all a bit nervous about what this toboggan ride entailed, we chose to seize the day and make our way to the toboggan! I would say that we walked about 3 miles of the wall (and that’s being pretty darn generous in my estimate), yet that is such a miniscule portion as the wall actually goes on for a good 5,500 miles!

Here is a picture of the wall, I know this picture is fantastic, but it still doesn’t do justice for the sight one sees when viewing the wall… it literally goes on and on and on:

The time flew by and before we knew it, we had to pick up the pace and make it to the toboggan ride… I have left you in the dark until this point as I am sure many are wondering what on EARTH is a toboggan? The dictionary definition of a toboggan is: “a long narrow sled used for the sport of coasting downhill over snow or ice. It typically is made of a lightweight board that is curved upward and backward at the front”… it reminded all of us of the bob sledding event that occurs in the Olympics… the only difference is that you ride the toboggan alone, not with a team! The line for the toboggan was out the wazoo, but you are only on the Great Wall of China once (well, I actually hope to go again, so maybe that’s not entirely true), nevertheless, we chose to wait it out. I am happy to report that the ride was not only worth the wait, but also was a long ride--- we were totally expecting a 5 second ride, but it was a good 6-8 minutes ;)

Here is a picture I snapped of another SAS family that was ahead of us in line:

I will forever remember our time at the Great Wall of China on THE Andrew Louis Klein’s birthday as it was truly one of those once in a lifetime days…the weather, the sight and most of all the travel companions were more than perfect ;)

In the afternoon we visited the Summer Palace, which was a beautiful site, but not worth “blogging home about.” Let’s be serious, I am trying to finish up this blog and if the location didn’t move me, I ain’t writing about it… (a clear sign that CK is advancing from a novice blogger to the intermediate stage)

The night on the other hand was fantastic… first we drove by the 2008 Olympic Stadium known as the Birds Nest. Some interesting facts about the stadium:

•  The building took about one and a half years to build (construction began in 2006)
• The Stadium has 80,000 seats, but the night of the Olympics it had about 91,000 people inside the building!
• There were 500,000 volunteers to help with the Olympics

After our drive by, we were off to an Acrobat show. I know what you are thinking, isn’t that a bit juvenile, how cool can that actually be? Well, let me just say it was OUTSTANDING… aside from the sports at the 2008 Olympic games, the Chinese were praised for their opening and closing ceremonies for the dancers were so on beat, not missing a single move--- consider this when thinking about the acrobat show… when I say talented people I truly mean it! Below are a few pictures from the show, clearly not even going to do it justice.

Additionally, I found a few youtube videos to give you an idea of the various acts:

• Motor Cycle Act- they end up getting 7 motorcyclist into this cage!
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ9ZVWTtSd0
• A good overview of the events at the show
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8xYfSW-OJQ

Andy’s birthday ended with some good ol’ American eating and then a surprise birthday cake in the hotel room… smile birthday boy ;)

And in the blink of an eye, we were onto Shanghai… it was hard to believe how quickly our time passed in Beijing. I’ll wait until my next post on Shanghai to describe our general sentiments about Beijing compared to Shanghai (keeping you on the edge of your seat, I know).

Our guide Lisa concluded our tour with a moving comment that as a world traveler I found to be so special, “Once you make friends in another country, remember it is like having family in another country, you are always welcome to come back and visit my country.” I hope to spread a similar message when visitors come to the United States.  

Klein family posing with our Beijing tour guide Lisa

One final “flushing” idea to leave my fans with… and that would be the toilets in China. This is one area I have lacked on reporting on in the various ports, but needs special attention in the Asian countries as their idea of a toilet is a bit different than a Western restroom…

Your thoughts? If you know Andy, you can only imagine how he reacted to the bathroom situation! Oy vey! Oy vey! Oy Vey!

CK takes HONG KONG with MOM AND DAD!

As you probably already know by now, my parents went above and beyond the call of duty by not only giving me the opportunity to explore the world, but went one step further and visited me in China. I should probably stop all the sweet talk because let’s be serious, Jilly and Andy most definitely rode on my coattail--- first the Bahamas and now China!

The story goes something like this: way back in November, my parent’s arranged to meet me in South Africa, after they got a taste of planning their travels, they got more than overwhelmed, thus threw in the rag and signed up for the SAS Parent’s Trip to China… Actually it wasn’t that simple there was the whole stage of well, South Africa is supposed to be amazing, should we really not go to South Africa? I spent a long time reassuring them that they would visit South Africa on their own, but China was one of those places they would never visit had I not been traveling the world! And with that, Jilly and Andy signed up for the SAS Parent’s trip to China ;)

Just so we are all on the same page, each semester SAS chooses 1 country where they organize a parents trip for those interested… the trip is much like any other SAS lead trip aside from the fact that the trip includes parents, siblings, grandparents, etc. For parents, the trip lasted a total of 10 days (they start the trip a few days before we get there) and for me it was the full 7 days I was in China! We met our parents in Hong Kong, went to Beijing together and then bid our farewells in Shanghai--- traveling truly can’t get much better than this itinerary!

Before I begin any real reflection of my time in China, I would like everyone to take note of the following:

• For the record CK had already set foot on Asia, thus she did beat her parents to this continent
• This was BY FAR Jilly and Andy’s farthest travel, thus it was a major milestone in their lives
• Jilly and Andy went to the doctor beforehand to get some “candy” to make the flight a little bit more enjoyable (just had to include because that’s actually hilarious) 

It is safe to assume that a major reason Jilly agreed to meet me in China is to have the chance to see the MV Explorer pull up to the Hong Kong dock and wave in the one and only CK into her next port of call.

Now how could CK screw this up?

Let’s set the stage… I had emailed with my parents Saturday night (the night before our arrival) and was under the impression that we would be pulling up around 8:00 AM. Additionally, we lost an hour that night in order to be lined up with Hong Kong time and therefore I was mucho confused without my extra hour of sleep. Somehow, in the middle of the night, the ship must have picked up speed to make our arrival 7:00 AM instead of 8:00 AM! Naturally, all of the parents were given this information, however students were just supposed to know that we would be arriving an hour earlier.

That being said, I Caryn Alyse Klein made my mother’s worst nightmare come true. I was not standing up on the deck waving to her as we docked in Hong Kong… Alright, for those who don’t know Jill Randee Klein, not much ruffles her feathers, but when they get ruffled, they get REALLY ruffled… Apparently, she was hysterical, her thinking: I somehow managed to fall over board… ooo Jilly! I woke to an announcement stating: “If your parents are waiting at the pier, it’s time to wake up and wave to them!”

OOOOO Snap! I was in for it and assure you that until the day I die will never hear the end of how my parents traveled ALL THE WAY around the world and I wasn’t standing on the deck to wave them in… If you would like to throw tomatoes or pie me in the face upon my return home, feel free, please note, I prefer Banana Cream Pie!

Although I am mocking the entire situation, I too am disappointed that I missed my 1 opportunity to wave hello to my parents while on board the MV… ;/ ;/ ;/ 

No more tears in Jilly's eyes, she spots CK ALAS on board the MV Explorer 

The moral of this story is that even the Type A people slip up every now and again!

Sunday, April 1^st

I got to the deck around 7:45 AM and not to worry there were other students who made the same mistake as well… misery certainly does LOVE company. The Hong Kong port was particularly great because guests could get close to the ship so I was able to have somewhat of a conversation with my parents and was able to introduce them to Jenna and Katie!

SAS had arranged for all of the students (who were participating in the Parents Trip) to wait in the 5^th deck dinning hall so that we could welcome our families as they boarded the ship. All of us (students) were uncomfortable with this public display of having us congregate in one area as it felt like we were rubbing into our friends’ faces that our parents came to visit and theirs were no where to be found…

I took my parents on a mini tour of the ship, but to be perfectly honest, they saw the MV before I did, so there wasn’t much need for the grand tour, instead we made our way to the beautiful 3012, my room! Jenna was still around so my parents were able to chat with her for a while and then some of my other friends stopped by as well, so Jilly and Andy began to match names with faces/ personalities--- obviously, Jilly was in HEAVEN!

We made our way off the ship around 10:00 AM and ate breakfast at my parent’s hotel. The hotel was connected to the cruise port terminal, so it was easy to get back and forth…

By around 12:30 PM I was itching to start touring Hong Kong, my parents on the other hand were moving in S-L-O-W motion… as a SAS-er this is NOT the way we would ever tackle a country, thus I was having my 1^st taste of “culture shock” in traveling with your parents… this so called sickness was one that was felt by all SAS students who participated in the Parent’s trip. Please keep in mind that by this point, we have become accustomed to being on the GO, GO, GO in every country, therefore when given down time/ whined at by our parents that we have “worn them out” we really don’t know what to do with ourselves! What’s the cure to this sickness you are probably wondering… well that’s simple, over the course of your China trip, you slowly convert your parents into also being GO, GO, GO type travelers! A natural remedy? Gasp! I know the Advil, Tylenol, and Aspirin fans are probably in shock…

As I was saying, by 12:30 ish I was able to rally up the troops and the Klein’s (minus B-rad and Roy) were on our way to “Take Hong Kong.” Our day’s adventure included navigating the Hong Kong subway system in addition to seeing the world’s longest escalator! I must admit, that Jilly and Andy impressed me as they had already become masters at navigating the subway (I presume this is what happens when you take the wrong subway the night before to make your 40 minute commute turn into a 1 hour and 40 minute commute… teheheh)

Along our travels, we found one of my friends, Daniel who came with us to the escalator. We were all surprised to find out that although this was the world’s longest escalator, it wasn’t connected, thus to get from one part to the next part, you crossed a street and then hopped back on!

Caption: This is one of the points where you have to cross the road to get to the next escalator! 

During our journey, we met a family who lived at the top of the escalator, they thought it was the funniest thing that we wanted to ride the escalator all the way to the top… as the mother noted, “you do realize that it looks the exact same at the top as it does from right here…” It was at this point that I made a mental note of how American we were acting as we had to have the gratification that we made it to the top of the World’s Largest Escalator. Additionally, in American fashion, we were disappointed to find that there was no beautiful sign nor a picture perfect photo opt place at the top of the escalator… just a normal street and apartments!

Between you and me I think that Daniel didn’t know how to handle the s-l-o-w travel pace of my parents and thus he decided to continue adventuring on his own… to be perfectly honest I felt bad holding Daniel up and was hoping he would want to part ways once we got to the top (as I have already noted it is a sin for a SASer to not cram a day when in port!)

We decided to take in the views of Hong Kong by walking down a different route from the escalator. From our observations, Hong Kong reminded us of San Francisco as it had those same darn hills! We eventually made it back to the Subway and once again Jilly and Andy used their talents and got us back to the hotel.

By around 4:00 PM we were back at the hotel and it was time for Andy to take a nap… of course he only intended to lay down for an hour or so, but before we knew it was 7:00 PM. In the meantime, my mom and I went back to the ship so that I could pack for the trip to Beijing and Shanghai (I would be meeting the ship in Shanghai at the end of the trip and therefore needed to get everything I needed until the following Saturday). After we brought my bag back to the hotel, we thought it was for the best to allow Andy to continue to get his beauty rest, thus my mom and I decided to do some window shopping…

One would think that when visiting an Asian country there would be a variety of different brands and stores, but I have to be honest it was the exact same as the United States… it is times like these that I realize the extent to which our world has actually gone “global.” What my mom and I found to be particularly odd is that not only were stores the same as the US, but there were hundreds of HIGH end stores… such as Marc Jacobs, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Chanel, Gucci, Tiffany’s, Heremes, and the list just goes on and on... Additionally, it wasn’t like there was just 1 of each of these stores, block after block there would be another one of the same store that literally was around the corner. We couldn’t help but to wonder how on earth these stores stay in business? Another common trend is that the stores were mostly found in shopping malls, but they are not the way we think of them in the US… the Hong Kong shopping malls are the ground floor of tall office buildings! I believe that the reason for this is because space is at such a premium so they take advantage of every square inch… it’s funny because space is also at a premium in NYC, yet shopping malls of this magnitude don’t exist in NYC!

After a solid 3 hour nap, it was time to wake up Andy and get ready for our big night on the town… and by that I mean Jilly’s 2^nd most important reason for wanting to come visit me… getting to meet my new best friends! Luckily, none of my friends had left for their China travels, thus my parents were able to meet 10 of my friends… we all went to dinner at an American restaurant and although my parents were a little mortified to be taking us out for American food when in Hong Kong, everyone was actually ecstatic to get a taste of home… remember it had been about 2 months since we all had had a savory bite of a Chicken Caesar Salad! Yum, yum, yum!

Below is a picture of what Andy so nicely noted as “Andy’s Angels!” (No longer Charlie’s Angels!)

It meant the world to me to be able to introduce my best SAS friends to the people I care most about--- mom and dad. What else could a girl ask for?

Monday April 2^nd, 2012

Monday was used as transport day from Hong Kong to Beijing… my biggest complaint about the trip in Hong Kong is that my parents toured Hong Kong the day before all of the students arrived therefore they had seen all the major attractions--- I feel like I got the raw end of the stick out of this country! However, it is for the best that my parents had an extra day to get over the jet-lagged because honestly no one wants to deal with a cranky ALK (Andrew Louis Klein) especially around birthday season.

We said our goodbyes to Katie and Jenna in the hotel lobby and were off to Beijing!

Next post will include the Klein’s adventure in Beijing!