Last China Adventure Part 1 - Beijing with No Passport

June was a busy time for me in Beijing. I had just organized all my belongings to be sent by boat back to California (they have now arrived at my new home), school was finishing up, and I had some visitors arriving for a last trip around China. The plan was to have them (Dad, Uncle Geoff, and Aunt Heidi) arrive on the Friday before school was out (June 10th) and we'd leave for Tibet the day after school was out (June 16th). We would arrive back in Beijing on June 25th and then all fly back on the same flight to San Francisco on June 26th. We had already paid for the trip and had our itinerary. All was good until...

Tibet got closed to tourists about a week and a half before we were planning to go so our permits were not granted. Apparently the 90th anniversary of the Communist Party is a big deal.

So, we changed plans. The crew already had their flights into Beijing and I reorganized with my travel agent friend, Hunter, for a Silk Road trip. School was finishing up and I made arrangements for a driver to pick up my family at the airport on Friday afternoon and I'd meet them at my apartment. All was good until...

I lost my passport and Foreign Expert Certificate. This was not good. When they arrived, I had my dad help me look through all my packed suitcases and throughout my apartment. No luck. I also searched my classroom with the help of several coworkers. No luck either. Nothing else was missing from my bag so it was unlikely that they were stolen. I called restaurants I had been to since I last saw them and they had not been found anywhere. My best guess is that I had them in my hand at some point and set them down and walked away. I didn't really have time to continue searching for them hoping to find them so I needed to get them replaced.

I informed my school's Government Affairs Office and they set things in motion for me to get replacements. I figured I would get things done but also show my visitors around while we were still in Beijing. At the moment, there was a possibility that we wouldn't be going anywhere due to me not having the correct identification. Hunter began planning a new alternative trip but he was waiting until we knew exactly when I'd get a new passport. I made an appointment at the US Embassy for Monday morning.

On Saturday, Dad, Geoff, Heidi, and I went to the Dirt Market in the morning where we found some things to buy.

I had a splinter in my finger that had worked its way down to the point of needing surgery to remove it. Thanks Uncle Geoffrey. Dad tried to open an umbrella and failed to do so safely - probably because he was opening it in my living room. We got matching band-aids.

In the afternoon, I went to the police station near my apartment to file a police report but it turned out to be the wrong police station to do that so I had to walk up the road to another one. There, no one spoke any English so, with a Government Affairs person on my cell, we passed the phone back and forth to get all the information they needed. They gave me a police report all in Chinese to take to my embassy.

On Sunday, I went by the photo place to get photos for my new passport, new Foreign Expert Certificate, and new visa. We also went to the Temple of Heaven.

In the afternoon, we had a driver take us to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. We were there in time to have nice afternoon light and fewer other tourists walking around with us. We took the chairlift up and rode the toboggan slide down.

While on the Wall, I began to think that the photos I got were not the correct size so we'd need to go back that evening to get new ones printed. We got them.

On Monday morning, I dropped the crew off to have breakfast while I went to the Embassy. I had to have a half-day substitute teacher for my classroom. The Embassy trip was quick and pretty painless. They apologized that it might take nearly 40 minutes for them to get me an emergency passport and I could leave and get a coffee if I wanted to. I opted to stick around and wait patiently and coffee-less.

With my new passport in hand, I picked up my family and we headed to school. Once at school, I went to the Government Affairs Office to give them my passport so they could get started on getting me my new Foreign Expert Certificate and visa. They told me that I would need to give them the money for those plus an expedited fee plus a fee for posting in the newspaper that I had lost the two things, etc. They said it all looked good until...

They asked for my new Temporary Residence Permit. Shoot. I didn't go back to that other police station to get it. I had my old one but it had my old, lost, passport's number on it. After school, I went back to the police station and got across that I needed a new Temporary Residence Permit. These are good for one year and you need to get a new one anytime anything changes, like you lose your passport. When the officer opened my new passport and saw that there was no visa, she started looking very surprised. I asked her to wait a second while I called the Government Affairs person to help again. All worked out and I was able to get my new Temporary Residence Permit.

On Tuesday, Dad, Geoff, and Heidi had a driver take them to Tian'anmen Square, the Forbidden City, a museum, and the Confucius Temple.

While they were being tourists, I went back to school to give them my new passport back plus the new Temporary Residence Permit (and also to work). By this time (June 14th) they expected to get my Foreign Expert Certificate back by June 20th or 21st and an expedited visa by the 24th. This meant that I wasn't flying anywhere until then. I let my travel guru know and he arranged a new alternative travel adventure. China by train! I was advised by some that this is not a good idea as I would still not have a passport with me. Some said even if I was able to travel by train without it, I would need it for checking in to the hotels. I was betting on my photocopied passport to be enough. Plus I had that police report saying that I lost my passport and I also had my Chinese driver's license.

Wednesday, Geoff, Heidi, and Dad got to be tourists again. Geoff got a haircut.

Wednesday was the last day of school and was a short day for the students. I gave hugs, packed the gifts my students and coworkers gave me, and headed back to my apartment to see what Dad, Geoff, and Heidi wanted to do for the evening.

Part 2 up soon. Will traveling by train without proper ID work out for me? Will I get my passport with a new visa back in time? Find out soon!

--Sarah--

P.S. Sorry this post took so long. I've been busy.

Jerilynn & Ray's Visit

On Friday, I met Jerilynn and Ray at the airport and we smooshed into a taxi. Imagine two large suitcases, two carry-on suitcases, one garment bag, one backpack, three people (plus the driver), and a good sized walker. I wish we somehow got a photo but we couldn't really move once we all got squished in. The taxi driver even had to help us get it all in. We made it though! We arrived at home just in time to catch the Royal Wedding coverage on CNN!

On Saturday, we had a leisurely morning and Jerilynn and I walked over to the grocery store. After lunch, we took a taxi to the dirt market where we had a great time people-watching, checking out all the things for sale, and buying things too. The air quality was not good because of a sandstorm and we had quite a bit of wind blowing us around, but we had a good time.

For dinner, we went to a restaurant that I have been wanting to try. It is called Din Tai Fung and it is on the New York Times Top 10 Restaurants in the World list for their wonderful dumplings. We thought it was pretty good too!

On Sunday, we hired a driver to take us to the Mutianyu Great Wall. It was a holiday this weekend so everyone else was going to the Great Wall as well. There was lots of traffic but lunch was tasty and we had a good time. We rode up in the chair lift and then we rode down the toboggan! We had lunch at the Schoolhouse Restaurant.

On Monday, Ray rested at home while Jerilynn and I went to the Forbidden City. But first, we had an ice cream.

I lost my sunglasses, but I found an elephant.

We had some excitement getting from the Forbidden City to the Pearl Market. We took a little three-wheeled putt-putt vehicle there!

On the way home from the Pearl Market, we had more excitement. We got in our taxi and he promptly got in a car accident. No one was harmed and we didn't see much of anything on the cars either, but we didn't stick around long. We hailed a new cab and hurried on home.

On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, Jerilynn and Ray had a driver drive them all around Beijing. I didn't get their photos from them for these days so I can't show you what they did. They went to many places though - some I haven't even been to yet! They also came to visit my school on Thursday afternoon for a little while. One day we had dinner at Pure Lotus - a vegetarian restaurant with interesting and flowery language to describe each dish. We drank tea that made our childhood memories bubble up into our pockets, or something.

In the evening on Thursday, we went to see the acrobats. We think the acrobats were tired because there were more mistakes than expected. We still had a great time though.

On Friday, I said goodbye to my lovely guests before I left for school and organized a driver to take them to Tianjin where they met up with their ship. Enjoy the rest of your trip Jerilynn and Ray! Thanks for visiting!

--Sarah--

Jon's October Visit Part 1

Jon came over to visit during my October break. We've had a pretty relaxing trip without much rushing around which has been nice. He is coming back in the spring so we didn't have to get to all the big sites on this trip. Here are some photos of the first half of his trip:

On Sunday, we went to the dirt market - panjiayuan. Jon and I enjoyed walking through the stands and bought a few things. Here is the calligrapher painting names on scrolls:

Later that afternoon, we headed over to Hou Hai Lake to walk around and meet up with a friend for dinner. Jon liked these signs:

and this family in their hats:

and this dog/superhero:

The lake was busy with boats and looked great with the lights reflecting in the evening.

On Monday, we visited the Lama Temple. This was the first time I'd been to this temple. It was very busy because of the holiday so we may come here again in the spring.

On Tuesday, Jon and I had some photos taken at Ritan Park. Before the photographers came, we had a tasty lunch and took some photos while walking around the park.

Then we were models.

My new cat finally came out from under the couch and has even begun to let us pet her. I named her Lao Wai, which means 'foreigner' in Chinese - exactly what she will be when I bring her back to the States with me.

On Wednesday, the sky was no longer blue and we began to have trouble seeing down the street. We decided to do something indoors so we went to the Blue Zoo. The Blue Zoo is a small aquarium downtown. They had some pretty good critters to look at but most of the glass had smudges so photos were difficult to take. Here are some lobsters that weren't too smudgey:

Next post will be what we did Thursday (today) and what we will do on Friday and Saturday.

--Sarah & Jon--

Sunday: Back to the Dirt Market & Father's Day Dinner

We went back to the Dirt Market on Sunday morning to buy a few more things before our trip home on Monday. Jessica got this video of a guy playing a little flute. I have a few of these at my place. This might have been on the first visit to the market earlier in the trip. I don't know how to rotate the video, so rotate your head. I figured out how to rotate the video, but it is much smaller so I'll leave both. You can decide to watch the small right-side-up video or the larger sideways video.

Later we went out to eat. We had planned to meet up near Tian'anmen Square with a friend of mine and her brother, but they were late coming back from Thailand. So, Dad, Jessica and I headed over to Ghost Street to see if we could find a place to eat. We liked the lanterns but didn't find anywhere we wanted to eat.

Just as we were about to settle some place, my friend called and said they could meet after all. We hopped on the subway and down to Tian'anmen. We had a fantastic dinner and then great drinks at a bar with a rooftop patio. Happy Father's Day to Dad!

--Sarah, Dad, & Jessica--

Sunday: Dirt Market and Chaoyang Park

Sunday morning I took Dad and Jess to the Dirt Market and to the park near my apartment.

Jessica liked the old clocks and bought a couple.

We liked the calligraphy brushes too and I bought a few.

There were a few cute split-pant kids running around.

Lots of things to look at and buy!

Jessica and Dad making a Beijing phone call.

After the Dirt Market, we headed over to Chaoyang Park. We walked from my apartment to the nearby park. We passed Fat Mother on the way.

It is really nice to have a big green park in the middle of the city! It even has clean dustbins!

We took pictures by the lake.

Dad relaxed on the grass and Jessica found a tree.

Jessica liked the ladybug bathrooms and the Rubix Cube snack stalls.

And the brooms.

Fun Sunday!

--Sarah, Dad, and Jessica--