Only in China....Talk about budget airlines!

Is this what the airlines have come too? Or is it a "only in China" situation? I'll let you be the judge...

Article from Daily Mail

Anyone who has ever used budget airlines know only too well how uncomfortable it can be: long queues, cramped seats and every tiny extra costs you.
But at least they are never told to get out and help push their plane.
That is exactly what happened to a group of passengers in China who were asked to get out and push after their plane broke down shortly after landing.

The Chinese Shandong airlines flight CRJ7 arrived safely at Zhengzhou from Guilin, but broke down before it could taxi to the passenger terminal.

Airport staff were called out to help push, but they had to ask some of the 69 passengers on board to help because the plane would not budge.

It took the group nearly two hours to shove the plane half a mile to a side lane.
One of the airport workers said: 'Thank God it was only a 20-ton medium-sized aeroplane. If it were a big plane, it would have knocked us out.'

The plane remained parked in the side lane on Friday night, waiting for technicians arriving on the next flight to fix the problem.

Funny Signs in China

At least they tried, but these are some of the most funniest signs that was translated into English. Click on the photo to enlarge it.

The Great Wall

Ryan and I really enjoyed the Great Wall. This was by far our favorite part of the trip. We went to a section of the wall that not many tourists go to, Gebeikou, it was so nice to be away from every one. We were in this GOURGOUS part of china. Green for days and wild flowers bloomed. We had to hike up to the top of the mountain and the wall sat on the peaks of the mountain. Than you can hike the Great Wall. It wasn’t a very easy hike once you got on top of the Wall, it went virtually straight up in most places. There is a tower every so often. I think we hiked from tower 6 to 12. After hiking the Wall, we then zip lined off the mountain! SOOOOOOO much fun!

It was just so incredible. It truly was worth everything that I had gone through to see this and get to experience the Wall. All the trains, bathrooms, bed bugs, the smells, everything. It made it all worth it!

Beijing

We arrived at Beijing by and overnight train. This time we had a “hard sleeper”. It is just train cars of bunk beds three high. No doors. I didn't mind the “hard” sleepers, but I still had to deal with the toilet. I am telling you…..I cried coming out of it. I almost pee’d my pants walking to the toilet, but you get in there and NOTHING would happen. The floor is just covered in urine and feces….you are trying to “squat”. It just isn’t my thing. I am just WAY too high maintenance for train toilets. The train station in Beijing was super crowed again….they have no concept of lines….they just push you out of their way to get ahead of you. This old lady totally chucked me. I pushed her back. I am so sick of that crap. There is NO consideration at all for one another. It starts to wear at you after awhile. Again….I hit another low. I wanted to go home. It was really bad for me. But after a shower and breakfast (McDonalds of course) I was ready to hit the streets of Beijing.

We got to go on a walking tour of some neighborhoods. We ate lunch inside a home. The son (supports his entire family – Mom and Dad, Wife and Child, and in-laws) lost his job with the government, so now he cooks lunch out of his home for tourists. Just so they can get a feel of a Chinese home. The food was hit and miss, there was a few good dishes. By now, I am a MASTER with the chop sticks! The neighborhood shares kitchens and bathrooms. No plumbing inside the studio apartments. Yup, and entire family, 6 adults and one child shares a very small apartment. Then we went on a rickshaw ride around the neighborhood. It was raining pretty hard…so we were soaked. I liked the experience….Ryan, not so much.

We also went to the Forbidden City. One of China’s most recognizable areas. It was the Emperor’s mini city, inside the city. For almost five centuries, it served as the home of the Emperor and his household, as well as the ceremonial and political center of Chinese government. Built from 1406 to 1420, the complex consists of 980 surviving buildings with 8,707 bays of rooms and covers 720,000 square meters. The palace complex exemplifies traditional Chinese palatial architecture, and has influenced cultural and architectural developments in East Asia and elsewhere. The Forbidden City has the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world.

From there is Tiananmen Square. The largest square in the world. Most of the photos I had to borrow of the net. It was raining pretty hard and the photos were too bad to see.

We also toured Summer Palace and went to a Kung Fu show. We also did a lot of shopping in the markets of fake goods. It is SO high pressure sales there. You had to talk them down….but it is just CHAOS there. You walk down the aisle and they all have their little sayings. “Lady, you want Prada bag”. “Sir, Buy shoes…you want shoes”. They all do this in the hundreds of shops there. They do anything to get your attention. It is really bad, especially when the grab your or chase you down. Since we like to be tortured...we went 3 times!

Olympics
The second we set foot in China….Miles away from Beijing, Olympic stuff is EVERY WHERE!! The government of China is trying so hard to impress the world with their Olympics…it is just got out of control. They have spent millions of dollars building buildings, remolding airports, subways, trains and roads. When we got to Beijing, it was just crazy with Olympic stuff. We came at a good time because there has been so much change to the city for the better. Taxis are clean and try to obey traffic rules. A lot of English stuff. There were no panhandlers. Trash was picked up and there was a huge presence of Police. Also the restaurants were better and more westernized. We got to see from a distance the Nest and the Aquatics Center. Both really cool buildings…..some of the neatest things.

Pictures:

1. Olympics logo.
2. Ryan and I in a rickshaw.
3. Cliff side view of the Forbidden City (borrowed image).
4. Ryan in front of the National Museum in Tiananmen Square. The Olympic count down clock in the background.
5. Tiananmen Square.
6. The Nest, an Olympic stadium. The was no beams used to make the stadium.
7. Aquatics Center (borrowed image).
8. Local on our rickshaw ride.
9. Forbidden City entrance.
10. Only Emperors was able to have 9 animals on the roof tops. Inside the Forbidden City.
11. Forbidden City (borrowed image).
12. Sumer Palace of the Emperor.
13. The office of the Emperor.

Terracotta Warriors

They call the Terracotta Warriors the "8th" Wonder of the World. It truly is an amazing thing to witness in person. It is just impossible to imagine orchestrating this project. The Terracotta Warriors is a form of funerary art buried with the Emperor of Qin in 209-210 BC. Their purpose was to help rule another empire with Shi Huang Di in the afterlife. In addition to the warriors, an entire man-made necropolis for the emperor has been excavated. The Terracotta Warriors were discovered in March 1974 by local farmer drilling a water well. His farm was taken so the could uncover the pits....so China made a "job" for him to support his family. They taught him how to sign his name so tourist and locals have him autograph books. He has become a celebrity in China. His siggy was pretty interesting.

An estimate of over 6,000 warriors in 3 pits. Also there was chariots with horses. All the Warriors are life sized and that no two are alike. Most researchers believe that each statue is based on an actual soldier of that time. It took over 700,000 workers to complete this feat.


Destruction of the Terracotta Warriors

There is evidence of a large fire that burned the wooden structures that once housed the Terracotta Army. It was described by Sima Qian, who said that the fire was a consequence of a raid on the tomb by General Xiang Yu less than five years after the death of the First Emperor. According to Sima Qian, General Xiang’s army looted the tomb and the structures holding the Terracotta Warriors, as well as setting fire to the necropolis and starting a blaze that allegedly lasted three months. Because of this, only one statue has survived intact: a statue of a kneeling archer. Despite the fire, however, much of the remains of the Terracotta Warriors still survives in various stages of preservation, surrounded by remnants of the burnt wooden structures.

Pictures:

1. Pit 1, the largest. It is rows and rows of the army. In the middle, the archeologists haven’t even started to dig yet! All the warriors had bronze swords and shields.
2. A bronze sculpture of the Emperor. It weighs close to a ton.
3. More of the army.
4. Warriors that is being pieced together. Only one warrior out of 6,000 survived, fully intact.
5. Ok….the Chinese people like to take photos of Westerners/African Americans. They would either just take my photo without asking or they would just run up and pose with me. Super weird!!!! I am in a several family albums now. They are especially fascinated with African Americans. They would just mob them and take a million photos with them. This guy is in China’s Army and just finished working with Earthquake destroyed cities.
6. The Kneeling Archer is the only warrior that survived the fire.