Week 9 - China

Marina feeling up the turtle

This bad boy was right next to me - no glass :D

Raj, Meg and us in front of the Beijing Olympic stadium

Raj, Meg and us on the Great Wall
This is the culmanation of my beard... cave man enough?? but when in Mongolia!
just in front of the Terracotta warriors

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Also, if you want to ring me, my Chinese number is +86 136 411 91484 (we will be in Taiwan from Sept 15-25 so it might not work then)

NeeHow! Greetings from Xian China! The past week has felt like an eternity in a good way as we have done so so much and had probably the best time of our trip so far! Wow! I'm just getting goosebumps reflecting on the last week! No I haven't ran off with a Chinese girl and yes Marina is still happily married :D

China... The word now has some new meanings !

So essentially, everything is from China! This is what you see when you are here! We think we invented stuff - and especially the greeks things so, but its all wrong; the Chinese are really the super race that has everything, its unreal! example: Pasta, sorry italians, Paper, and probably food - or at least proper food! This stuff is so good, I don't care if I'm 300lbs (140kgs) after this trip; its just that good! I mean, I could sit and eat this stuff 24 hours a day :D And if you are wondering, the food in Chinatown in London, is NOT, far off the mark - its pretty much the same! Well in China, you get some crazy stuff, like boiled frogs, pig feet, chicken legs (with the feet attached)... And yes, we have tried some crazy stuff which you will hear about below...

What else, China is seriously modern, we haven't been to the countryside, but Beijing and Xian are pretty much like western cities - with a serious chinese influence. I joke with Marina that China is more modern that Russia, but in fact its more modern that countries that are more modern than Russia! It is cleaner and more sensible than even south Korea!

This country should ABSOLUTELY be the preeminent TOP tourist destination in the world - it is awesome! I'll give you some reasons why below, but it is unbelievable!

AND... I love the Chinese! They are soooo fun and really are the same as westerners, but maybe better :D They party hard, are very funny, love good food (I mean good food) and are just cool people!

So what have we been up to for this past week.. Well a short list this time.

Beijing > Xian

Saturday- Raj & Meg: Our best friends Raj and Meg came to visit us in Beijing these past few days. For those who do not know Raj he was my best man (along with Jon Lurie) at our Russian Wedding. So the next few days were carnage! We met them at about 9pm after a long day of plane delays at Ulaan Baatar Chinggas Khan airport. But it was great to see them and as soon as we met up we went out to the party area in Dongchang Beijing and had quite a few beers! The area was fabulous, just along a lake brightly lit by the neon from the bars and alive from the live music emanating from the bars!

Sunday - Squirrel Fish and Peking Duck: We did the sites today; the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace. Surprisingly the Summer Palace was preferred by all four of us. That night we went out for dinner at a nice posh Beijing restaurant and order some great dishes. Marina and I were really looking forward to Peking Duck, but this wasn't our favorite that night. The squirrel fish was unreal! Its really a mandarin fish in a gorgeous sauce that that is supposed to be shaped like a squirrel, but it looked more like a strange animal...

Monday - The Great Wall: Despite the early morning, seeing the Great wall was fabulous. We went to Jinshanling and did some hiking a few kilometers along and on top of the wall! Its truly a breath taking site! Back in Beijing we went to the market to try some rare delicacies. Now I may not have mentioned, but in Korea, Marina tried silk worm larvae, so I guess it was my turn. We started with scorpion! These were pretty big, probably a bit bigger than a baseball; not too bad, almost like crab - the claws had white meat in them. Next we tried a fried starfish - that all four of us tried a bit of! After we went for some wine at Atmosphere (80 floors up) for a view of Beijing, however the pollution seriously shortened the view.

Tuesday - Chairman Mao: We started the morning seeing the great leader, Chairman Mao Zedong! He was embalmed in a Lenin type of way in the middle of Tiananmen square. Absolutely necessary to pay tribute to the man himself before we really start our journey in his great country! We then went to see the Olympic park and the birds nest stadium; it looks huge from the outside, but not too big or impressive on the inside. Later at the market was quite an experience, they make EVERYTHING! as a replica, blackberrys, Ipads, Mont Blancs, cloths, golf clubs, etc... That night we had our best night, besides the girls almost getting kidnapped by a crazy taxi driver, we ended up at Suzie Wongs for some drinking games. Meg didn't do too well, but by the end we were all in the same state, having a great time!

Wednesday - The Sharks: In the morning Meg and Raj were leaving. Guys - thanks for a great time and coming to visit! Later in the day,we got to do what we had been hoping for; scuba diving in the Beijing aquarium with sharks! Surprisingly Marina was getting pretty brave to the idea. We wanted to do this in Korea, but were there at the wrong time. So the scenario; 20 sharks; nurse, white-tip, black-tip, leopard, cat sharks, AND one HUGE TIGER SHARK!!!! yes, I said Tiger shark - this was a huge 3 meter (9 feet) beast with razor sharp teeth jutting from its mouth. The teeth were mostly out of its mouth just ready for a kill. So semi-nervously we jumped in the tank, somewhat aided by a dive master that just kind of showed us some things and then left us alone for the remaining 40 minutes. The coolest thing was he had us swim up to the tiger shark (this was in the first 5-10 minutes and had us pet the tiger shark! I mean pet the back side of a seriously man eating shark! Marina was scared then but did this later. Sharks would swim straight at us, like you see in the movies when they attack, but these were mostly docile sharks and it seemed harmless. It also hardened our nerves to when the Tiger shark did this. I mean, this hugh man eating beast with its teeth jutting out swam towards us looking as if it was going to attack (probably to about 1 meter-3 feet) and then just swim past us! You may wonder, were we wearing some metal suit or were we in a cage.. Nope and Nope, just a small wetsuit! We also were able to ride the turtles. Along with Morays the size of great anacondas, they had fish that were as big as cows.

Thursday - Terracotta Warriors: We arrived in Xian this morning by an over night train. This site is very cool, but I think people should wait to see this if you are not already coming to China. The reason being is its only 10% excavated! This crazy emperor (Xian was the ancient capital) was so crazy that he had everything in his real life replicated so when he died he had this all in his burial chamber. That's why there are the terracotta warriors. So he had a circus, concubines, family, servants, all kinds of things replicated.. and not just people.. everything. So they really only have the army unearthed, there is so much more to find. Emperor Qin Shi Huang was bonkers! But we have some really cool stuff now from him that was made over 2200 years ago. He started this project when he was 13 years old, it took 700,000 slaves 37 years to finish. And the crazy thing was this was only discovered in 1979 by a farmer digging a well...

Friday - Dim Sum: One great thing about Xian is it has a fully intact city wall spanning 14 km (9 miles) around. Marina had never ridden a bike so we opted for the double bike and rode it on top of the city walls. What a great time! That night, we finally found a Dim Sum restaurant. As Dim Sum is a regional dish for Hong Kong, its not so widely found in China.. But it was so good! After we went to the bar area and then finally a club which was seriously awesome. Pretty much surrounded by BMWs and Mercedes cars, it was a nice place! And we had a few drinks and then shared a table with a very cool couple who we partied with for the whole night playing different drinking games and having loads of fun!

But we are feeling it today! So its been a crazy and fun past week; what's next... We are flying to Shanghai today and then on the 15th we fly to Taiwan for probably 10 days, so maybe the blog will be fine there. Then somehow we are coming back to China for about another month! Zaijan!

Love Dan and Marina