Category: Great Wall

Our China adventure published. A dream realized.

On By Travels with MelindaIn adventure, Beijing, China, expat, Great Wall, Hong Kong, Nanjing, Seattle, Shanghai, Travel, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Cross that off the bucket list-publish book.  When we moved to Shanghai in 2013, I started a blog to stay in touch with family and record our adventures.  It grew into a daily rhythm to capture the craziness that was our daily life in China.  Soon, people from around the world started reaching out to me for advice:  Where can I get dog food?  Should I bring my own mattress or buy one there? Where should I live if I have kids?  Is the pollution really bad?  Why yes, it is.  Now you know.  The lungs don’t lie.  Buy a mask and wear it.

When my transfer details were finally worked out and I accepted the offer, I immediately went online and looked for blogs or books to get a feel for what our new normal would feel like.  I would be a female executive navigating through the Chinese business world while Thom adjusted to being a trailing spouse.  I was disappointed to only find guide books primarily aimed at tourists.  I was going to become a local expat and needed a source of truth to turn to that would help guide me through all the unexpected challenges from walking down the street without getting run over (truly a challenge daily!) to opening a bank account and being surprised they still used an abacus to conduct transactions.  WTF.

We relied on our Chinese tutor, Fiona, to guide us through many obstacles and just explored through fearless curiosity daily in our quest to not live in the typical expat bubble and instead venture out into the real China.  Daily we learned and as our confidence grew, Thom took off on a bike to explore and take beautiful photos and I jumped on the bullet train to commute to Beijing and Nanjing for work on a regular basis.

As a result, our blog posts and photos chronicled a journey that few folks get to take.  Those that are lucky enough to live in China can use our lessons learned to adjust quickly and with less pain than we went through at times.  Not that we didn’t love living there because we did.  We would walk down the Bund, climb the Great Wall (4x) and pinch ourselves.  “We live in China!”  It never got old and we miss our life and the people there.  The pollution, not so much.

Pulling these stories all together after we returned home to Seattle was Thom’s year-long journey.  Who knew it was so hard to edit a book?  I swear every time we thought we had all the spacing, spelling and template formatting just the way we wanted it, we found more opportunities to improve and had to change it.  FINALLY, we hit the button and made my frustrated inner writer very, very happy when Seattle to Shanghai and Back Again:  Our Year as Expats in China became a reality.

Maze anyone?
Will miss Hong Kong!
Fearless and Lucky I am according to my FT

Will anyone read it?  Maybe.  My mom will.  The aunt of a guy I met at a friend’s party who just moved to Shanghai to work for Intel will.  Who knows, maybe other people?  Making money and world publishing dominance was never the impetus for writing this book.  Sharing our adventures, recounting our tales so our granddaughter, Mia, will know that her GiGi and NaiNai were crazy world travelers while she was just being born as well as helping other expats adjust to life in China were the main objectives so we are happy.  Back in Seattle, we are always looking for the next adventure.  A vacation to Ireland is coming up soon and then possible work travel to India and Europe.  Would we move abroad again?  You never know.  Life is short.

 

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Our Ayi, Pink, and our Chinese tutor, Fiona

 

Excercise in the Park-2
My new friend and I exercising in the park.
Sweet Potato-7071
Sweet Potato Lady

“Seattle to Shanghai and Back Again: Our Year as Expats in China”  is available here-looks best in color versions vs. Kindle b/w due to photos:

Softcover book: http://www.blurb.com/b/7250489-seattle-to-shanghai-and-back-again

eBook: http://www.blurb.com/ebooks/588686

Amazon Kindle: Seattle to Shanghai and Back Again: Our Year as Expats in China

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC46Dht4h7e7Tebgx6Ri9tMA

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seattletoshanghai/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seattletoshanghaiandbackagain/

Other blogs on WordPress: https://alleyesonshanghai.com/2016/03/24/seattle-to-shanghai-and-back-again/

 

Shanghai Farewell Tour-Great Wall v4.0

On By Travels with MelindaIn adventure, Beijing, China, Great Wall, Shanghai, Travel, Trips outside ShanghaiLeave a comment
Crooked, sloping, uneven, and totally awesome-steps at the Great Wall
Crooked, sloping, uneven, and totally awesome-steps at the Great Wall

Luckily, I had to be in Beijing this week for business, so we made time to visit the Great Wall one last time–my fourth visit.  After a rainy travel day yesterday, today was blue skies, clean air and cool weather–WHAT??? IS THIS BEIJING, REALLY?  Patti and Larry, our visitors, think we are lying about the pollution in China because since they have come, it has been the best weather of the year.  Perfect time to visit China is late September/early October while the trees are still green, the coal heat isn’t being used yet and the fields of corn aren’t being burned yet after the harvest.  There is a this very narrow window of normality that I am sure all citizens rejoice and revel in.  I know we are!

So, we set out at 8 a.m. for the Great Wall with our driver, who saved our lives not once but TWICE when he swerved to avoid the crazy drivers who had missed their exit and then decided to dead stop on the highway to back up.  Thank you driver!  I was sitting in the middle of the back and holding onto Patti for dear life because I had no seat belt.  Safely arriving, the new Great Wall Guest Center was barely busy with all the new shop areas just coming to life.  They sadly are opening a Burger King in the complex-yuck!

Sharing the Great Wall with our friends, Patti & Larry, was awesome.
Sharing the Great Wall with our friends, Patti & Larry, was awesome.

After the lovely climb to the top on the ski lift, we climbed and enjoyed taking lots of pictures, though we can’t possibly take more than our local friends who can pose for what feels like hours when we are waiting to use the same space.  Get on with it, folks!  Snap the photos and move on.  One couple actually dragged the huge wedding dress to the top to take their wedding photos.  Can’t imagine the coordination or how the bride had to probably change into it to keep it clean.  Amazing what you will do for a cool wedding photo!

SO FUN! Toboggan your way down the mountain!
SO FUN! Toboggan your way down the mountain!

After traipsing up and down the crooked, leaning, worn steps through several gatehouses, we proceeded to the most anticipated part of the trip–tobogganing down the mountain.  I’ve done this twice before and it is FUN!  The crazy local group who had hogged the best spot to take photos was just in front of us.  I warned our group to wait because I just knew they would stop mid-mountain to take a few photos and they surely did just that.  Thom was screaming at them to move on so we wouldn’t plow into them but we had to stop on the slide and wait them out.  A lovely couple from the Netherlands behind us thought me insensitive as I screamed at the top of my lungs, “GO.  DAMN. IT!” several times but I reassured them that I live in China and locals would only understand this type of communication.  Thom decided to let go of the brake and see how they liked to being bumped forward-the ugly NYC cab driver in him oozed out.  FINALLY, with us and the track workers yelling at them to “GO,GO, GO” they went, smiling all the way having held up dozens of people but they got their pictures and that’s all that mattered to them.

After some bargaining for more presents (Patti is getting as good or better than me!), we started on the two hour ride home-I won’t miss Beijing traffic for sure but I will miss the Great Wall.  There is nothing like it and I will always be in awe that I got to experience it not once but four times while I lived in China.  WOW!