The Great Wall

We finally went to The Great Wall!  Father rented a 15 passenger van for a week so we could access outer limits of Beijing not easily accessible without a vehicle.  For the seven days we have the van, we are trying to jam as much things into our days as we can.  Father thought starting out the seven days with the Great Wall was smart, but he forgot that yesterday was a holiday, so it was pretty crowded but the traffic wasn't too bad.

It was an hour drive there and we got there around eleven thirty.  Father decided that we would go to the North Side of the wall, since it's longer supposedly more fun.  We saw that 99% of the people were on the North Side.  At the beginning it was very crowded, but as we continued the crowd thinned out.  Surprisingly enough, it wasn't that hot since it was so windy.

Panoramic view

The ground was a very uneven at some parts and slippery, but the view was pretty terrific!  There were so many slopes and steps.  Not for the out of shape, that's for sure! We took frequent breaks, and sometimes got  a little spread out since there were so many people.  Around the middle of the walk, we stopped for some corn for Mother, and ice cream for me and my brothers.  Mother likes the corn in Asia more than back in the States, and always treats herself to some when in Korea, and now apparently China.

Brother #1 makes an appearance!

We made it to the end of the wall at around four in the afternoon.  We took a long time since there were so many of us, and Mother and Father were slowed down since they were either carrying the Baby or a backpack filled with drinks.  At the end, we took a very long break before beginning to walk back, leaving through one of the side exits.

As we walked back to the parking lot where our car was waiting, we passed many vendors and tried out some food.  Mother really liked the corn, so she got another one, and I got another ice cream.  We also passed by some black bears who were eyeing our hot-dogs and looked a little pathetic.  The Baby spotted a spiderman mask for $1.60 so Father easily agreed to purchase it.

Poor Black Bear...

During the hour drive home, we got to enjoy the outside scenery as the AC was blasting our sweat away.

Mini-Getaway!

There are spas everywhere in China so at Mother's urging, Father booked me an appointment to get a facial a facial.  This was the day that Father had a meeting with his employees.  We got to meet them and go out to eat at a restaurant with them.  They were excited to see us since the Brothers are quadruplets, and I was a little surprised to see Father has so many workers!

One of Father's secretary's mom runs a countryside inn of sorts and nearby you can fish and have it prepared for you on the spot.  We decided to go for a two night trip. This would be our first train ride in China, took us an hour and only 50 cents!    There is only one train tht leaves Beijing and it's at 5 PM.  By the time we got there, it was nearly night.  Father's employee is on maternity leave but she met us there.  Her baby boy was very cute, though I've spent enough time around baby boys, to be honest.

We went out to a restaurant known for their fish that night for dinner.  It was pretty good, although I wasn't that hungry.  he next day was the day that we were to go fishing.  But the fishing place opened at 4:30pm, so we had the morning and afternoon to kill.  Father decided that we should go on a little hike to these two gazebos that were nearby.  He was hoping for us to climb up a small mountain, which a lot of people go to for picnics, but the weather wasn't nice enough.  All of us, including Fathers employee, quickly got to the first temple, the Temple of the Sun.  Our next goal was the Temple of Mountain Water, which wasn't too far.  

But climbing down was a lot harder than climbing up.  Brother #2 fell a total of 3 times! Plus, you had to cross the train tracks to get there, which made everyone a little uneasy.

It was drizzling  a little as we walked down and Mother suggested that we head back, but Father thought the rain would clear up.  By the time we made it to the second temple, it was a downpour.  We had to wait it out, but it was getting cold out there.  Father claimed he saw blue skies coming our way, but we waited there for quite a bit.  A little bit after we decided to come down, the rain decided to come down as well.  Luckily, Father's employee called her dad and brother, who came with their car and umbrellas.  Father went into the car since he was holding the Baby, and the rest of us made it home with the umbrellas.  By the time we got back, we had another 2 hours to kill until we went fishing.  The 2 hours passed by quickly, and it was time to go "fishing".  The fish are actually trapped in little man made pools, so it wasn't that hard to get one.  Even the Baby got one on his hook, but his line snapped.

By the time everyone (except the Baby) had gotten at least one, we went to go pay by the pound. After that, Father specified how he wanted the fish cooked and they got right to work.  Even though I'm not a huge fan of fish, I still enjoyed it like everyone else, including Father's employee and her brother, who tagged along.  We got baked fish, sashimi, and differint kind of fish stew.  All of us liked the sashimi, but we only got one fish of that out of 11.

Once we were done, we all went back to the house and rested up for the night to catch or train today. The ride was short and sweet, although on the way back you can't buy your own seats, you have to sit wherever you find room, but at 50 cents per person, we can't complain too much.  We ended up being  a little spread out but all was well.  

The Summer Palace

Wandering around the Summer Palace is listed as one of the highlights to cross off your list in the Lonely Planet guidebook.  It's a mile to walk to the subway station, but luckily Father looked up the bus schedule, which is right outside our condo.  The tickets are around $5 for just the entrance or $10 all inclusive pass.

Brotherly Love at the entrance

As soon as we walked in, I was quite impressed by the view.  It was a little smoggy today, but it was beautiful nonetheless.  First, we checked out some artifacts made of jade, bronze, and miscellaneous items.  There was no photography sign but so many ignored the sign, Chinese and Westerners alike.  I thought the artifacts were pretty to look and interesting to read about, but the Brothers were getting a little bored.  We quickly got a move on it and made our way to another section of the palace.

In front of the Paifang Gate.  Anybody who has been to Epcot in Disney will recognize this!

We took quick looks at the 17-arch bridge from afar, looked at some of the preserved buildings and checked out this Paifang Gate, which, according to Father, has a replica in Disney Word Epcot's China.  By now, our selfie stick was now out of commission, unfortunately.  We also took a look at the beautiful, three-story theater that is the biggest theater in China, a fun fact.  

Can't even get the whole theater in the picture!

 Next, we strolled down the Long Corridor, which is about half a mile long. The paintings in the corridor, while a bit faded, were still very pretty and interesting to look at.  There were also some lily-pad ponds not to far for the corridor which were very pretty and I got a quick look at.  After that, we went to see the Tower of Buddhist Incense.   

View from resting point

Climbing up the many stairs was tiring since we were already a little worn out, but we took frequent breaks, so I was fine.  The view from the top of the temple (not really the top, just the highest point we were allowed to go to), we took an even longer break.  Inside, there was a three story sculpture of Avalokitesvara.  There were many people bowing and throwing money at the sculpture, which confused the Brothers until I explained what the sculpture is.

Once we were rested enough, we decided it was time to go.  So we went through the exit at the top and began to head over to another attraction, Longevity Hill.  It was quite tiresome, walking down that rocky hill, so it took a while.  

Panorama from the top

The view was really nice form the top of the hill, but it was so hot, all of us were covered in sweat. Once we got to the bottom, we took a quick look at Suzhou Street, left the palace and took the bus home.  Once we got near our condo, Mother suggested we buy some pastries at a bakery nearby.  She loves the "Paris Baguette" in Korea and there was a sore named "Holiland" that was promising.  Altough it was good, it wasn't quite up to par.  Our search for a good bakery continues...

Suzhou St. (very similar to Riverwalk in San Antonio last summer)

Okay, so there hasn't been an update the past few days, but that's because we've been taking it easy, which is fine since we're here for nine weeks.  Two days ago, we were invited out for lunch from Father's childhood friend, Uncle Liao and his family.  It was sweet to see Father so happy and enjoy himself like we have never seen before.  I don't think I've ever seen Father speak so much!  We also got to really try some authentic Chinese food that we hadn't had before, including Peking Duck a Beijing specialty! I enjoyed the food very much and getting the chance to meet Uncle Liao's daughter, who is only a year younger than me. Even though all of us liked the food, there was so much, that we weren't able to finish! 

The next day, yesterday, Father bought some street vendor food for breakfast, which was a little too greasy for my taste, but it was still good.  Greasy food seems to be a trend in China.  

A little after that, Brothers #1, 2, and 4 went out with Father to see Beijing's Hutong, which is basically a bunch of historic narrow alleyways.  It wasn't really their cup of tea and they were only gone a few hours. They came back  sometime in the afternoon very tired and a little cranky, which is understandable. They took the subway, which is, I remind you, a mile away, and we're not used to walking.  Usually we just hop in Silly Sally, our mini-van, and drive wherever we want!

View from bridge while walking to subway

Later that day, one of Father's employees who has been with the company for pretty long time invited us out for dinner of "jjajang myeon" another Beijing's specialty.  There were many interesting dishes, including silk worms, cow intestines, pork, jellyfish, and  of course jajangmyeon.  I tried everything, although I preferred some dishes to others.  The silk worms were just a little to weird for me.  There was also soy bean juice, which I only managed to get on sip of before completely rejecting it.  Father wouldn't even try it, and he's the one who's 100% Chinese!

Not pictured: silk worms, jajangmyeon

Jajangmyeon pre mix!

I'm not exactly sure what the dessert was called, but it was quite sweet and I liked it a lot, but by that time I was too full to finish it.  Once we were all done, Father's employee walked us back to the bus stop and we went our separate ways.

Today, Mother, Father, Brother #3, the Baby and I went to Beijing's Hutong.  While yesterday's group might not have liked it, I sure did.  Maybe it was because this time, Father was following the Loney Planet guidebook, but it was quite interesting to see.  The main road was a total tourist trap, but once you got off of that, you definitely got a feel for how China was like back in the day.  We didn't tire very easily since we got the bright idea to take a taxi.  We walked for a few hours, taking it all in and stopping for food and drinks along the way, before heading towards the Drum and Bell Tower.  The guidebook described it as magnificent, so I had some high expectations.  

Initially, Father accidentally took us to the back of the Bell Tower, which is just a plain grey tower from the back, and I was sorely disappointed, but then we walked around to the front and I was relieved. We didn't walk all the way here for nothing!

We took some pics, trying out our new selfie stick outside for the first time.  By then, we were all tired, so we decided to skip out on the inside of the towers and decided to head back.  Father bought us some drinks before trying to get a taxi. It took a while, but we got one.  It's really hard hailing a taxi in Beijing!  My feet were so sore and I was so tired, that even though I had a fun day, I was glad to go back.  Father dropped me and Brother #3 off at our condo before meeting Mother in the market for groceries and we finished off with a relaxing night. 

The Baby trying out the selfie stick himself ft. new frames Mother got

The Forbidden City

So, I lied in my last post.  We didn't spend yesterday in the Forbidden City. The jet lag was just too brutal.  So we kind of had a lazy day, which we spent checking out the Pizza Hut nearby.  I know how it sounds, eating at Pizza Hut when you're vacationing in China, but Father told us that the pizza here is really gross, so of course, the Brothers wanted to try it out. Surprisingly enough, the pizza was decent and the restaurant was pretty fancy.  It was upstairs and served a lot of other things, not including pizza, like pasta, various appetizers and desserts.  Nothing too eventful happened the rest of the day, but our sleeping schedules are beginning to get on track.

Today, we went to the Forbidden City!  I got up at around five and we left the house at around eight.  It was a long and tiresome walk to the subway station, but the weather was surprisingly pleasant today. Once we got to the station, it was a long ride to the Forbidden City.

At the entrance of the Forbidden City, Mother realized that we forgot the selfie stick we bought just before the trip!  I was a little disappointed, but quickly got over it.

After walking in through the front, Father went to go buy tickets before remembering what he read online.  According to the internet (which isn't always accurate) you need an ID to purchase tickets. We were all bummed out to learn that Father forgot ID and that we wouldn't see the Forbidden City. Of course, as you can already see, we did get to go.  As it turns out, that piece of information that Father read was simply just a big rumor.  Many other people in line were asking about it as well. Afterwords, we all laughed about it before diving in to the (very big) Forbidden City.

The Imperial Garden

The Forbidden City was very pretty and neat to look at, although a bit crowded.  Once we got in, we head to the bathroom.  Mother was a bit nervous about the quality of the bathrooms.  I took one step in and immediately took another step out.  It smelled a lot and there was only one toilet in the whole thing, which I only found out later when I went for an emergency.  The stalls had what seemed like just the toilet bowl shoved into the ground.  It could still flush but you still had to put the toilet paper (which you had to bring yourself) in a wast basket and clearly, many women do not now how to squat, because there was pee all over the floor.

After leaving that mess of a bathroom, we went to the Ceramics Gallery, which was definitely very interesting to took at and we learned a few new things.  We continued throughout the Forbidden City, our feet slowly beginning to hurt.  All of us, except for Father, seemed to have underestimated the sheer size of the place, though it was still nice to look at.  After a few hours and many, many breaks, we decided to head back.  We didn't see the whole place, since some of it you had to pay to get in and we already spent $10 per person to get in, and part of it looked a little worn out to Father.  We left through the Imperial Garden through the back and walked all the way around to the front to get back.

This was some time in the afternoon, and we decided to get some dinner on the way back.  We were all pretty hungry since breakfast was really this and that and there was no official lunch.  It was  along walk to the subway and me, Brother #1, and #2 convinced Father to buy us some umbrella hats, which might make some more appearances throughout this vacation.  Shortly after that, we made it to the subway and Father proposed that we go to a fish place for dinner.

While walking there, everyone was tired, so Father decided that we could go to the fish place another time and instead stop at the new Korean BBQ restaurant that had just opened.  We were there a little early for dinner, coming there at 3:40pm, but we were all so hungry and knew that if we went back to the condo, we wouldn't want to leave.  Plus, I love Korean BBQ so I wasn't really arguing.

We ordered some beef, kimchi chigae with rice, and tteokbokki.  All of us agreed that the food tasted pretty good, though Mother said the food wasn't very authentic.  But I suppose that's to be expected in China.

Afterwords, some of us weren't quite fulfilled so we decided to stop for ice cream at the convenience store on the way back to the condo, encountering some strange old man along the way.  He was stroking Brother #1's umbrella hat, saying something that Brother #1 couldn't understand. He freaked out about the old man and ran away before telling us what happened and we had a good laugh.  After a little more walking, we finally made it back to the condo and relaxed the rest of the night.

A New Journey Begins

For the Zeng kids, school was out June 5th, on a Thursday.  By Friday, we were already on our way up to Toronto to catch a series of flights to China.  On the way, we stopped by Grandma's place.  Even though we only stayed there for one night, it was still nice seeing Grandma, although she only left our house four days earlier to go back to her home.  Then we went over to Niagara falls, only this time we saw it from the American side.  The American side was definitely not as nice as the Canadian side and we didn't stay there that long, but I still wanted to see it.  The weather was breezy and a little sunny, which was nicely paired with the mist from the falls.

Our next stop was the Toronto Pearson International Airport, to catch a flight to the London Heathrow Airport in London, England.  Along the way, we stopped for some food at McDonalds.  It was interesting to see that they offered a specialty item; Poutine, which was McDonalds fries with gravy , cheese curds and maple syrup drizzled over it, topped with bacon. It was pretty good, although a bit greasy.  From there we continued and finally made it to the airport.  We had to wait about five hours for our flight.  Luckily, the airport offered free wifi and the five hours passed by very quickly.  My brothers and I streamed Netflix to watch The 100, a new show we're all hooked on right now.  Eventually, we boarded the plane and endured the six hour flight, which wasn't that bad, actually. There were many entertainment options that all of us well utilized.  The flight passed by in no time.  We had a quick layover, with another security check which was stressful.  The security in the UK is much more strict than in the U.S. and many people's bags were set aside for inspection including 3 of ours!  After the ordeal, we utilized the airports free wifi, and then we were back on a plane.  This time, our destination was Helsinki, Finland.  

This flight was only two hours and thirty minutes.  Everyone was exhausted by then, so we all napped on that flight.  The Baby was behaving surprisingly well the whole time.  Once we got off the plane, we rushed to get on our next and final flight to Beijing.  This flight would be about seven hours.  But since this flight, like our first flight is long,  there was a lot of free entertainment, although this selection was a bit more limited.  I was the most tired on this flight and probably the most impatient.  Once we arrived in Beijing, we not so quickly went through customs before getting bus tickets.  The bus isn't the ideal transportation but with 8 people, 3 large luggage, and each of us carrying one full backpack (the parents with two hand held luggage) the taxi couldn't fit all our stuff, so we took the bus.  The bus ride was around an hour due to the morning rush house and I slept through most of it.  

After getting off the bus, we hauled our stuff to our condo where it also doubles as Dad's office.   It was raining so we rushed to get there.  Father's office manager was there, waiting for us.  She went out to get umbrellas so we could all go to the police station  to register us.  After that, we all returned to the condo and let the jet leg take over .  We got some breakfast food, but it was really greasy so I didn't want any. I took a shower, since I was feeling gross, and the crashed. When I woke up, it was nearly one in the morning, local time.  I goofed around for nearly two hours when Father decided to take us all out to eat at this noodle shop he goes to a lot, which is open twenty-four hours, of course.  We took a long time to eat since the noodles were incredibly spicy.  Father definitely overestimated our abilities to eat spicy food, although the noodles were still good.  Mom and Dad enjoyed some beer that was super cheap!

Once we were done, we made our way back to the condo, stopping at a convenience store along the way and we stocked up on banana flavored milk and some ice cream.  They definitely had a variety of flavors, and even though some of the flavors seem weird, they're actually pretty good.  I got a corn flavor ice cream, and I really liked it, along with many of the other brothers.  Then we stayed in our condo until the sunrise, resting up for the rest of the day, which we planned to spend in the Forbidden City.

Thanksgiving+Spring Break+Alaska=A Very Long Update

Well, it's been a while since I last posted, and I'll admit, I got lazy.

Thanksgiving break isn't exactly fresh in my mind, but I do remember that we all definitely had a lot of family fun! Of course, we didn't spend the whole time together, but the time we did was pleasant and excursions together were fun.

All the kids battling some wind!

The weather was a little windy the first day, but as the week progressed, it definitely got better.  Most of the cruise was more about spending time wiht each other and eating as much as we possibly could.  Definitely a fun wya to spend Thanksgiving.  The beaches were nice but the waves a bit choppy.  However,that didn't stop us from having a good time.

One notable excursion was going to see some exotic monkeys through a company Mother found on Cruise Critic.  But there were other animals as well.  There were birds, monkeys, and even a sloth! Which, by the way, all of us got to hold! Even the Baby.

Fast-forward a few months, a here we are on our Spring Break cruise! Or as Canadians call it, March Break.  I know this because during this cruise, there were many Canadians on board.  It seemed strange at first until we were informed that it was their March Break.  On this cruise, we did some pretty exciting excursions.  We stopped by Maho Beach and Atlantis to take in some beautiful sights. But the ship had great things to offer as well.  There was a giant trampoline, a ropes course, water slides, and rock climbing! Our family utilized everything aboard.

At Maho Beach, which is famous for the Princess Juliana International Airport adjacent to the beach.  From the beach, you can see some pretty spectacular views of the planes coming in for landing or even get blown away by planes taking off! My Brothers and I definitely thought it was cool, but something you only do once.

At Atlantis, our family split into two.  Father and the Brothers went off to the Aquaventure and had a great time at the slides.  Me, Mother, and the Baby hung out by the beach until it started raining.  So we decided to go to The Dig, Atlantis' well known aquarium.  The creatures they had on display were very pretty and the three of us enjoyed it very much.  After that, we did some typical tourist-y shopping before heading back to the ship.

Now, currently, Mother has come back from her Alaskan cruise just yesterday.  It was a week long cruise she spent with Grandma (on her side) and the Baby, celebrating grandma's 70th birthday, which just so happens to fall on Mother's Day.