I returned from a week in CHINA yesterday! Ask me anything!

[radwriter0555]

It was AWESOME. A week in Beijing on a cane and crutches, since the night before I left, I dislocated my knee chasing the dog out the door. Had wheelchair service through all the airports which was nice.

LOVED Beijing. LOVELY city, amazing kind, considerate, polite people, bending over backwards to provide for your every need. The shopping RAWKED. OHMYGAWD the bargains to be had were out of this WORLD.

I have stood on the Great Wall of China. I have seen the Forbidden City.

I have shopped.

I have lived.

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. Where did you go to see the wall?

Outside Beijing?

Did you get far west at all? Anywhere in Sichuan? Did you see the dam?

[radwriter0555]

4. I went to the wall at "Mentaniau" (phonetic) which had a cable car

up and down, OR you could -- get this -- take a tobbogan ride back down to the bottom! It was isolated, no crowds like at Bada Ling, and was astoundingly LOVELY. The wall is about 1.5 hours outside of Beijing, and we had a private guide drive us out since I was hobbled. It cost us $25 each for the 6 hour expedition, and we had lunch at the site as well.

That was the only remote site we visited this time.

[Orrin_73]

How was the wheather???

[radwriter0555]

5. We froze our BUTTS off for 3 of the days, and the other 2 were bright

and sunny. The weather was much like upstate New York. VERY cold for a sunny Southern California Gal.

[La_Serpiente]

2. What did you eat?

[radwriter0555]

6. The food mostly sucked. Our hotel was not in a walking around part

of town, although it was GREAT. Its restaurants were simply horrible. The couple of meals we had outside the hotel weren't great either, but one lucky lunch in a really really cool noodle house was outstanding.

Luckily there was a Baskin Robbins in the hotel! And their coffee was great. We had mostly ramen noodles. Feasting wasn't part of the expedition this time.

[Rabrrrrrr]

7. Wow - do you not like authentic Chinese food?

Or was the hotel fake-Chinese food like we get in the good ol' US of A? Or was it authentic, but just poorly done?

[radwriter0555]

9. The flavors in the local food had a back taste I just simply didn't

care for. I found their resources rather limited. No fresh vegetables or fruits were in sight anywhere and the menus are noodle based, which is fine, but I'm TRYING to stay carb free.

There was genuine chinese food at the hotel, but I just didn't care for it at all, which was a surprise. I'm a real foodie. I LOVE noodles, dumplings, and all that stuff, but what we had just wasn't to my liking, except for the one dish of shrimp and pineapple that was awesome.

Plus they heavily use MSG which nailed us one night pretty bad.

[Rabrrrrrr]

10. That MSG is killer

Makes me feel hungover when I get hold of some. Ouch!!

No fresh foods, eh? I guess it is winter, and they probably don't import like we do here. Hadn't thought of that. And one eat noodles only so many times before bloating up like a sick balloon.

Very sad it was so bad - one of the main reasons I would want to go to China would be eat my way through it. (no tripe though, please). :-)

[radwriter0555]

12. The food was the ONLY disappointing aspect of the entire adventure..

we rate the trip 8 out of 10, taking off 2 points ONLY for the food.

The trip as a whole exceeded our expectations. It was an amazing place to visit and I will definitely return for more fun, in better weather!

[GOPisEvil]

3. How's the knee holding up?

Got pictures for us?

:hi:

[radwriter0555]

8. With massive amounts of Vicodin, the knee held up, now it's time to

pay the piper and get to the ortho and get really yelled at. I am in a LOT of pain, no longer distracted by sites, sounds and cold.

I have lots of pictures and cannot figure out how to load them up here. I'd be happy to email them to you if you gimme a real email addy!

[jenm]

11. how long was your flight?

How was the airport when you got there? What airline did you
take?

How was the air and water quality?

Know anything about Shenyang, northeast of Beijing? I may
be going there, and am wondering what season would be the
best to go.

[radwriter0555]

13. The flight was 8 hours from LA to tokyo, then 3 hours to Beijing...

The airports were LOVELY, modern, clean, well run; service was outstanding. There was no language barrier at all, BTW.

The air was a bit gunky and everyone routinely was hocking up loogees. We definitely could see the air quality issues. The water tasted fine for toothbrushing, but even in our VERY nice hotel, we were told not to drink the water, so we bought bottled or else boiled some up in our room hot pot, to have on standby.

The cold was very tough on me on the sun-less days. I don't like winter, and it is really winter there, at this time.

Several people suggested the early fall, September, as the best time to visit. We stayed in the city except for the one visit out to the Great Wall.