Chengdu to Los Angeles

Ctourus -- Tour of Tianjin, Chengde, and Beijing, China

Day 6 - Chengdu-Beijing-Los Angeles, November 20, 2017

Finally, it was time for us to head back home. Our last breakfast at the hotel was passable only because we woke up a little late and went down for breakfast close to their closing time. Still had enough to eat before we were taken back to the airport.

Hotel for the night and their shuttle that took us back to the airport.

Back at the Shuanliu Airport in Chengdu.

I was really craving for some fried chickens or a real burger by now. They did not have a good burger joint but they had a KFC inside the airport after security check. Not cheap, but oh so delicious! 

Two-piece chicken and an extra order of wings in the bag, juice and french fries. Yum!

Son went for pizza with my nephew and they said it was really good! I think this was a Pizza Hut and some kind of spicy beef pizza. 

Our flight out from Chengdu was at 3:00 in the afternoon and we arrived Beijing at 5:40pm. Since our flight to Los Angeles was scheduled for 21:00pm that evening, we had another airport meal before boarding our long flight home.

Dan Dan noodle for MOR.

A drink for son. He said he was still full from the pizza.

And a plate of roast duck and roast pork rice for me. Very good! Except I really don't enjoy the rice they serve throughout our trip in China. I like long grain or jasmine rice but they served mushy short grain rice on this trip. 

Anyway, this concluded our 14-day adventure in China and we arrived home safely after the long flight. I must be very tired because I did not have any more photos after this rice dish which was quite unusual for me not having any pictures of in flight food. : )

**It took me more than two months to complete this trip report. I must say that even with that horrible situation in Chengdu, we had an amazing journey in China! It's always fun traveling with families and especially this time we were traveling with my siblings, their spouses and some of our kids. As we are getting older, traveling like this would become rarer each day. I treasure every moment of these opportunities.

With God's grace, the horrible ordeal turned into a blessed journey, better than what we could have imagined. Thanks to J at Ctourus who worked with us throughout this incident. Our guide Mr. Yang, and the driver who were kind and courteous on the replacement tour. After we came home, we reported the incident to the Sichuan Tourism Bureau and they launched a series of investigation on the matter immediately. The local tour operator who handled our tour in Chengdu and the two guides sent their letters of apology but still without telling the whole truth. In fact, their version of the story was quite far from what actually happened. We wrote to the bureau again to point out their lies as a rebuttal and the bureau reported back that what they found out was pretty much close to what I have reported. The final penalties was for the local tour operator to pay for the total expense of $30,000 (RMB) on our replacement tour to Beijing, Tianjin, and Chengde. The two guides had to pay half of that amount out of their own pockets plus they were placed on three months leave without pay together with letters of apology to us. I must applaud the Sichuan provincial tourism bureau who really took this matter seriously so that this could be a 'learning tool' for other tour guides in their province. My only hope is that nobody else will receive this kind of treatment wherever they are traveling in China. No matter what, we will continue traveling around the world! Stay tune.

Summer Palace, Hutongs, and Wangfujing

Ctourus -- Tour of Tianjin, Chengde, and Beijing, China

Day 6 - Beijing - Chengdu, November 19, 2017

This is our final day in Beijing and almost the end of our tour. We will have to fly back to Chengdu this evening, spend the night there, and then fly back out to Beijing before our long flight home. It's a pain to be spending so many hours flying back and forth but there was nothing much we could do since our original plane tickets couldn't be changed. We had six days of wonderful time on this tour so far so we don't mind. 

Some cute statues along the road as we walked to the hotel restaurant for breakfast in the morning.

The restaurant was quite crowded that morning but we found enough space for us all in the side room.

Checking out of the hotel after breakfast.

Busy traffic in the morning.

IBM building...

which supposedly represents a dragon.

I don't remember if we did anything before lunch, but the next batch of photos that I have are the ones taken at our lunch place. This is probably not a popular restaurant for western tourists but possibly among Chinese visitors since this has a more nostalgic feel of the Mao period. Xiangyang means 'facing the sun' and sun represents Mao Tse Tung during the Cultural Revolution period. This restaurant is in the Haidian district, near the summer palace and Yuanmingyuan Park.

Gate at the entrance of the restaurant

Part of the open-kitchen as we entered the restaurant.

There is a stage right in the front, not sure if they have performances here at the "People's Theater".

One of the many 'quotes of Mao' posted on the wall.

Festive and traditional decorations.

Summer Palace (Yiheyuan 頤和園)

This is a UNESCO Heritage site and a major tourist attraction in Beijing. It was the lakeside retreat for the royal family and it is a masterpiece of gardens, lakes and palaces located in the northwest of Beijing city. Most organized tours will visit the Front Hill area. DIY tourists who take the subway here would get off from the station at the entrance at Back Hill, which we still have not had a chance to see. I am sure it would be a magnificent sight looking down at the palace from up there.

We entered the palace from the East Gate and there didn't seem to have too many tourists that day. The first stop was a view of the man-made Kunming Lake.

Kunming Lake with the Tower of Buddha Incense in the far distance.

The lake was a little 'bare' at this time of the year.

Following our tour guide Mr. Yang.

Hall of Jade Billows (Yulantang玉瀾堂) was the living quarters of the emperors. Emperor Guangxu (光緒) was once confined here by Empress Cixi (慈禧). 

The two buildings stand side by side of Yulantang. Xiafenshi (霞芬室) on the right,

and Wanxiangxie (萬香榭) on the left.

Taihu rocks in the center courtyard.

Behind the Hall of Jade Billow is the EngfengChangshan.

Yiyun Hall, the living quarters of Empress Longyu (隆裕), a niece of Cixi, and the queen of Quangxu. It used to be a library in the Qianlong era.

Hall of Joy and Longevity, Empress Dowager Cixi's living quarters.

One of the bronze sculptures in front of the hall. Cranes represent longevity.

Entering the Long Corridor. From here our guide let us free to spend our time before meeting back up at a set time.

Look up at the detailed paintings all around the Long Corridor, also know as the Summer Palace Gallery.

Absolutely beautiful! These paintings include famous places in China, and scenes from Chinese mythology and folktales, the 24-Filial Exemplars and the Four Great Classical Novels.

This IS a long corridor.

Looking up at the Paiyun Hall and the Tower of Buddha Incense from Paiyun Gate.

 People getting in the palace through the Back Hill would be walking down from there.

This marble copy of the Stone Boat was to replace the original wooden boat that was burnt in 1860. It is 96 meters long with western style paddle wheels.

After the Stone Boat, we turned around and walked back to the front following the beautiful walkway along the lake.

Looking back at the Royal Boat Dock.

Now we are back at the starting point, Hall of Benevolence and Longevity (仁壽殿), where court sessions were held.

Hutong Tour on Pedicabs

We have never done a pedicab (trishaw) tour of the old hutongs in Beijing. Which turned out to be quite interesting. I think this is a very popular activity with western tourists. Our guide had made arrangements for us to take a short ride on these trishaws just for the experience. We were prepared to tip our driver but Mr. Yang told us that he would handle that at the end. Riding through the old Beijing area was quite different. These houses in the hutongs are jam packed places and we were told that they will be torn down to make ways for new development.

Well-covered on the pedicab.

We had a nice chat with the driver who came to Beijing in search of a better life from the village.

Back on the bus but still in the hutong area.

Long line at a famous store selling roasted chestnuts.

These meal-delivering service are very popular in China.

Wangfujing Shopping Street

Wangfujing is a pedestrian shopping street for both tourists and locals. This would be our last stop here in Beijing. We had some free time here  and then meet back at a restaurant close by for dinner before heading out to the airport for our flight back to Chengdu. 

St. Joseph's Wangfujing Church or Dongtang is one of the four historic Catholic churches in Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Beijing. This is at the north end of the pedestrian street.

Walking towards the south end.

Getting busier as we walked near the Snack Alley at the south end.

You can get some very unusual 'snacks' here.

Dare to try some? Still wriggling!

There are many name-brand stores and restaurants here also.

Beijing Department Store

Back to our meeting place, a hot pot restaurant inside this hotel.

Hot pot, great for a cold evening.

After the wonderful hot pot dinner, we were taken to the Beijing International Airport for a late flight back to Chengdu. We were definitely very tired by the time we arrived Chengdu. We were picked up by the same young man who met us on our first trip here six days ago. This time we were dropped off at a hotel near the airport. Tomorrow we will leave this city again for our flights home.

Airport Jiangou Hotel, Chengdu

Another good, functional hotel for the night. Not too busy and it seemed to be not that close to the airport. It worked for us because they do have shuttles to transport customers to the airport.