My Trip to China

4/15/14 - 5/1/14

This was a Birding and Culture trip led by VENT. Lennie and I signed up for this about a year ago. We left San Francisco around noon on Wednesday April 15 - a direct flight to Beijing, arriving on Thursday around 3 PM. Although we didn't sleep much, arriving at what would have been midnight in SF we were pleasantly surprised to have been fed - three times on the flight, we also had plenty of liquid to drink so we were in pretty good shape. We met one of our traveling companions in SF and three more in Beijing but they went on to a different hotel. After finding our agent we were driven into downtown Beijing experiencing our first encounter with commute traffic. It is absolutely horrible, traffic barely moves and people cut in and out continually. Beijing is very very crowded with many 40-50 tall buildings for both business and living. People are really packed together. And "yes" the air is as bad has you have heard. Many people wear masks all the time and you can see the smoke coming out of power plants right next to apartment buildings. Our hotel was very nice - in fact elegant, Beijing Qianmen Jianguo Hotel. Our guide told us that the hotel had a performance of Chinese Opera so we decided to go. We didn't want much for dinner so we had a beer in the hotel lobby and something to nibble on plus the sandwiches we had bought to eat on the airplane but didn't. Then we went to the opera and fought to stay awake. It was interesting in a culture sense but not music that I enjoyed. It seemed like noise to me but the costumes were so amazing and the performers so interesting I am glad we went. It was good to go to bed afterwards and sleep as late as we wanted the next day.

Thursday 4//17/14 Our first morning to wake up in China! 55 years ago if you had told me that I would be in China one day I would not have believed it possible. China, in its isolation of those days seemed so exotic and so far away. That is where the starving children lived as we were reminded when we didn't finish our dinner. China was where we'd end up if we kept digging that hole. (Actually from San Francisco we'd end up in the Indian Ocean.) So after a good buffet breakfast (a mix of Western and Chinese Food) we asked an English speaking young man in the lobby where he would suggest we walk to visit that morning. His reply was "but it is raining". We laughed and told him we were fine, we weren't going to spend our first day in China in the hotel lobby. He told us about the Temple of Heaven Park near by. We were not familiar with this place but it turned out to be a perfect excursion. We put on our rain gear and started out walking in the southeastern part of central Beijing. The walk itself was very interesting as we walked through masses of humanity and cars, small back street type of shops with locals shopping, plus large high rises 20-50 stories high. I'm not sure how long we walked but it was at least half an hour as we were gone for a total of 3 hours. It did seem like a very long walk because when we thought we had reached the park there was a high solid wall and we had to walk and walk along that wall until we finally reached a gate. The park is 674 acres, which is a little over 1 mile square and there are only 4 gates, one on each side. So we entered one gate and left by another. This complex was built in the early 1400s and was used by the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for ceremonies to pray for good harvest. It is currently a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We spent about an hour walking around this area, climbing stairs to look into some rooms and go into others. There were lots of people walking around but not uncomfortably crowded. There was a group of people dancing western dance in one area which was an interesting comparison to the people we see in our parks doing Tai Chi. We saw our first birds of China here but we didn't have binoculars so the only ones we identified were the large ones like a Magpie. Then we walked back to our hotel enjoying the sights and sounds of Beijing. Crossing the streets was a challenge here and in all China; my San Francisco training did not work in China. I think they would have run over me - gray hair and all - rather than stop for me. I had heard that Chinese venerated elders but I did not experience any of that. When we got to the hotel we decided to eat there, as it was a "safe" selection so we enjoyed our first Chinese meal. Our menu was all in Chinese with no English subtitles but it had photos so we made our choice and had a pretty good lunch.

Thursday afternoon We arrived in the hotel lobby where we met our group. Dion Hobcroft our VENT leader from Australia. Gordon and Peggy Tans currently living in Nicaragua. Four birders from Canada who have traveled together many times, Sandra Dashney, Jill Collyer, Wanda Pedersen, and Barbara Vinsome. We then met our local guide, Leo and local bus driver, both of whom were excellent. Leo told us a bit about Beijing and life in the big city. He also explained about family history and Chinese names. Leo is his English name and all the guides told the same story, on the first day of English class the teacher walked around with a list and told each person what his English name would be and that was it forever! We were driven to Tiananmen Square - a place that has been much in the news in recent times. The square was started in the 1600s as the area in front of the entrance to the Forbidden City. There were a lot of people in the square with lots of tour groups - all Asians, and a large presence of police and military. There were several stations where the military would stand at rigid attention - at most moving their eyes. It was here that a phenomenon started that continued throughout our trip. I first noticed a young girl who was laughing and pointing her finger at me - I thought I was in the way of her photo taking but she followed me and it soon was clear she wanted to take my picture, this happened several times. Also there were groups that just stood and stared at us. I later asked our guide about this and he said we were likely the first Westerners they had ever seen. I thought this was surprising in Beijing but he said they were like China tourists from the rural parts of China where few Westerners go. We found this experience to continue throughout the trip especially in the rural areas where we saw no other Westerners, let alone birding Westerners. We had our pictures taken many times and we eventually just joined in the game, we must be all over the Chinese social network by now. Eventually we entered the Forbidden City, which is another UNESCO World Heritage Site. Construction was started in 1406 during the Ming dynasty and was the political centre of China until 1912. It is now a museum with many treasures. Our guide explained some of the history and significance of the area - too many to write about now. Then we spent some time walking through the area. It is very large and seems to just go on and on. It is about 180 acres with some 980 buildings. Only a few of the rooms are open - mostly just for looking in. But it was most interesting. Then we went back to the hotel for dinner at the same place we ate lunch. We each ordered individually based on the photos in the menu - some of us made good choices some not so much. The food is very different than the Chinese food we have in California, for one thing the sauces are much stronger in taste. We had a good visit with our group getting to know each other; we seem like a friendly bunch of people.

Friday 4/18/14 This morning we drove to the gardens of the Summer Palace. We had the opportunity on the drive there to experience how horrendous the traffic was on the major roads in Beijing. The traffic moves very slowly and very chaotically. I am amazed that we never saw any accidents. The Summer Palace gardens were the private gardens of the empress but today they are public grounds and there were many people there. We did not go into any buildings but saw them from a distance. We spent our time enjoying birding and saw a nice list of Chinese birds. We went out to lunch at a local restaurant where our guide, George was well known. He ordered us a variety of dishes, which were brought a platter at a time and placed on the "lazy Susan". This was the pattern for most of our meals. I cannot really tell you what all the dishes were. Some had the same name as Western Chinese dishes - such as kung pao chicken but they were very different in the sauces, much stronger tastes. We soon learned to look out for the hot peppers and remove them because they were very hot. We had lots of vegetables many of which we did not know. One guide even brought us out one of the vegetables and we had never seen it before. The meat was mostly pork, chicken, and some beef. Almost no fish. I did get a little tired of the food by the time the trip was over and it did bother my stomach. I was glad I brought my own fork because I just can't master chopsticks and unlike American Chinese restaurants they do not have a side stash of forks! After lunch we went to the Ming Tombs, another UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are 13 Ming tombs here staring from the 1400s. The walk in the middle of the park has stone statues of guardian animals and officials and we walked along this way and did a bit of birding too. We didn't go into any tombs but we did look into several rooms and see the statue of one of the emperors. We ate dinner again at the hotel restaurant with various degrees of success.

Saturday 4/19/14 This morning we left at 5 AM with a box lunch for breakfast (including naturally an egg- ugh). We were headed for Wild Duck Lake (Yeyau) on the outskirts of Beijing. This area is one of the few - if only wetland preserves in Northern China and has become a popular birding site for tourists and Chinese. We had a long drive with heavy traffic even at the early hour. We were driving in a more rural area and there were more slum type of living areas. There were also a large number of trucks on the road. The smog was still with us - there have been articles written about China improving the air quality but we didn't see any sign of clean air. Many days you did not see the sun at all and we did see many coal burning plants with high stacks pouring out the thick black smoke. We enjoyed our time walking around Wild Duck Lake even though it was raining for part of the time. We did see a nice list of birds. There were a lot of people out there walking about and riding in rented pedal carts - like a bike for 2 or 4 people to ride together. We went someplace for lunch - this might have been one of the fast food places where we had a noodle soup. Then the Great Wall of China in the Badaling Section. What a thrill it was to finally be here, having heard about it for so many years. It looks so different at eye level, to see how it was built and the actual size. It is about 4500 miles long and we walked on barely a mile of it and saw only a few more miles of it close up. Amazing to think it was built 475-221 BC and is still standing. We spent some time here taking pictures and enjoying the scenery, it was sunny and clear. There were lots of people but we were able to avoid them occasionally. Then we had our long drive back to Beijing through lots of traffic. Everywhere we drove in Beijing and in most of China we continued to see many high-rise buildings 20-50 stories high. Some were half done and not being worked on, some finished but empty, some still being built. I recently read an article about China's ghost towns and we saw many. Our guide said the empty and unfinished ones were the result of the economy but with new ones being built we thought that maybe they were just the government's way of keeping people employed. Some were so far away from any source of employment we wondered where the residents would work. China is a large country with rich resources; it will be interesting to see what the situation is like in a few years. It will affect the area where I live as a lot of the wealthy Chinese are buying houses in this area, with cash as investments. We got to the hotel and ate dinner in the bar so we could have some Western food. It was good but very slow; some people were still waiting for food when others were done and on they way to their room. It was a long day.

Sunday 4/20/14 Happy Easter! No recognition of Easter in China! Another early morning - left at 5 AM for the airport where we flew to Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi. Security was very tight - many of us had our backpacks go through several times, had to take out cameras, binoculars, readers, and ipad. Also she found something in my pack on the x-ray that she had a hard time telling me what she was looking for. I finally figured out it was a bottle of pills. After this I kept those pills in my suitcase and took everything out of my pack before security. They are a lot stricter than in the US. Upon arrival we met Donna, who would be our guide for the rest of the trip. She was a very sweet girl but this was her first trip as a guide so she had a lot to learn. Also her English was very inadequate and we had trouble getting her to understand us. It was interesting and Dion was very patient with her, but several problems would have been avoided with a more experienced guide. We were on our way to see the Terracotta Warriors and Horses, another UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was an absolutely amazing sight. The largest group of sculptures is in one very large room, built to protect them from the weather. There are approximately 8000 in all with some 1000 uncovered in this room. Each one is different. Last year a few of these warriors visited San Francisco and I am glad to have seen those so up close and personal. The faces were very expressive and the eyes seem to follow you as you walk past. The ones in SF still had some of the paint left on, the colors faded when they were uncovered in 1974. A farmer was digging a well when he found the first sculptures; they had been buried since around 200 BC. In fact the farmer was in the museum store signing the book that was written about the discovery. He is an old man now and does this when he feels up to it. I just enjoyed walking around the area and looking at all the various figures, warriors, horses, chariots, and other animals, all to protect the emperor in the afterlife. Finally we had to leave and I did buy my souvenir warrior at the gift shop here. We went on to lunch at some local restaurant. Then we left on our five-hour drive to Foping, through the Qinling Mountains. The highway was very good and did not have much traffic. Not many cities but many very tall apartment buildings along the road - all empty. We were in the mountains now. We stopped at a hotel in town. The town looked like a resort town but it was almost empty of people. Our hotel was rather primitive and they could not serve us dinner nor would they have breakfast for us. This was also the place where we started the toilet paper adventure. All of the hotels away from the big cities were very parsimonious in giving out toilet paper. So I went down to the lobby with the empty roll and asked for another. The girl at the desk spoke no English and acted as though she didn't know what I was talking about. Eventually she did give me a small roll, which I knew would not be enough for the two of us so I had her give me two rolls. By this time the rest of the group were downstairs and thought this very funny but it wasn't long before everyone was having the same problem. I don't know if Chinese people don't use paper or if it is very expensive. I even passed along the advice when staying for several nights in the same hotel to hide any scraps you had so that the person who made up the room in the morning would give you another "roll". These rolls were not on a cardboard tube and were very small. It got to be a standing joke. Also the plumbing needed repairing in many of the hotels, I had to fix the toilet, the drain in the sink, and the drain in the floor. It was easier to fix it ourselves than try to explain what was needed. The one time to reported that our air conditioning wasn't working we have three different people in our room over a period of an hour - for no improvement. Some of this is expected while traveling in a third world country but with all the resources and building going on in China I wonder if it should still be classed as a third world country. Talking about toilets I will just briefly mention that most of China have squat toilets. They are horrible and very difficult for us Westerners to use. In some places like airports and large attractions they will have one or two handicapped stalls, which we always lined up for. Fortunately the hotel rooms had western style toilets. Now back to dinner - we went into town which looked like it was set up to be a resort town but it was very quiet. We went to a restaurant and our guide and the owner had a big discussion, which turned into an argument, which involved us all walking out. I'm not sure of the whole story but apparently they didn't have enough food to cook for us. By now it was pretty late and it looked like we'd go to bed hungry until we convinced someone that a bowl of noodles would be just fine so back we went and between a beer and a bowl of noodles we were happy and were driven back to our hotel. The town was strange with lots of colored lights on various structures up on the hill and major neon signs advertising the night life in town but there wasn't any - nor was there any effort to help us out. I suspect this is a government owned town and people get paid whether they have customers or not.

Monday 4/21/14 Since the hotel wouldn't be serving us breakfast Donna had bought some noodle bowls, rather like our cup of soups or ramen dishes in the US. We boiled water in the lobby and had noodle soup and instant coffee or tea for breakfast - in the lobby. We may have been the only guests in this rather large hotel. Then we drove to Da Ping Yu where we hiked up the mountain in order to see the Golden Snub-nose Monkeys. This monkey is endemic to a small area in central and southwest China. There is a local man who feeds them in the area we went to so there was a large number in the troop. It was a long steep walk in the mountains to see these monkeys and they were a lot of fun to watch. Several babies which make for a lot of activity. Then we walked down the mountainside and arrived at a fairly new complex where we had a very elegant lunch served. I took photos of each dish served and tried to get a name for them: beef pot stew, sweet and sour pork, panda bowl with rice, beef with beans, kung pao chicken, mushroom, bamboo, eggs, corn, potato. Even with those names nothing (except the white steamed rice) was the same as in California. We had lovely service but saw no other tourists or customers around. Apparently there are rooms to stay in and we might have enjoyed staying there if it had worked out. It seemed like the idea was "if you build it they will come". The road to this place was almost non-existent but they were working on it - cutting back mountainsides and building bridges so maybe someday it will be a destination spot. We drove to Yang Xian where the last population of seven of the Chinese Crested Ibis was found in 1981 and they have protected the area and the birds. They also have a captive breeding program and are trying to introduce them back into the wild in Japan as well as other areas in China. A local farmer knew where there were five nest so we saw some of them with the parent on the nest and even better we saw some flying around the area, majestic birds. We stayed in Yangxian tonight but I can't remember anything about the hotel or our meals.

Tuesday 4/22/14 We went to nearby Hanjiang River Bridge where we were able to walk under the bridge and do some shore birding. Then we drove some seven hours to Tangjahe, which is in the Sichuan Province. Our drive took an extra hour or so because we had a flat tire - a blow out actually. The way our driver, Mr. Chen handled the bus going at speed on the highway was impressive. He had quite a time changing the tire, as it was an inside one so he had to take two tires off and replace the one and then put on the other. We were on a four-lane highway with a car width pull out. We all got out and stood at the edge of the guardrail. After driving past us about 3 times a car with three policemen finally stopped and told us to get on the other side of the rail and also put out an orange caution cone. We were on a steep slope so we didn't have much space and nowhere to walk. Our driver had to walk back towards a village where he found a shop where he was able to borrow a tool he needed. Anyway we birded from the edge of the highway and were glad it wasn't raining. Our driver did an excellent job. We finally continued on - the road was well paved and smooth to drive, with lots of tunnels to shorten the time it took to get to our hotelß. We saw a lot of beautiful scenery, first agricultural area and then mountains. We passed a lot of small villages some really nice looking others a little rough and every so often a tall tower of apartments. We stayed at Tangjiha Mountain Villa - a 3 or 4 story built into the hillside. Since we were on the third floor we went around to the back to avoid hauling suitcases up the stairs. Here as at several hotels we noticed that whenever we were out and about a lady who seemed to be living in one of the rooms would come out and hang around in case we needed help - finding light switches or opening a door and so forth. We had a very elegantly served dinner - same food as usual - brought out and served on the lazy Susan. In most places we had dinner in a private room. We are at about 4000 feet elevation.

Wednesday 4/23/14 We went on a pleasant birding walk before breakfast along the road, next to a river. After breakfast - peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with instant coffee we loaded up in the bus and into the Tangjiahe Giant Panda Reserve. Our local guide, Mr. Ma is a ranger or something similar for this park. While there are Giant Panda's in this area we did not see any in the wild but because of the pandas this area has been protected and we saw many other interest animals, including the Tibetan Macaque, Takin, and a river otter. Mr. Ma had never seen the otter before in the park. It was a beautiful day walking up and down along the road and we saw a good variety of birds. We were in a valley at about 4000 feet surrounded by mountains up to 16,000 feet, green with beautiful trees. This park is the eastern edge of the Himalayan Mountain Range. Interesting to notice cell towers on some of the mountain peaks, even here our guides had excellent cell coverage, Donna could call the bus driver and tell him to come and pick us up when we were ready to go to another spot. Also there were a large number of beekeepers on the park - I think mostly being raised for making honey. I am not sure if they were moved around to pollinate fruit trees. We ate lunch in a lodge in the park were we saw the first English speaking group for several days. We didn't talk with them but they did look like a birding or hiking group. We had a nice lunch - the usual selection of a variety of dishes. After lunch we continued up another road and did more birding until we returned to our hotel for dinner.

Thursday 4/24/14 We spent one more morning birding in Tangjiahe Park - driving to the end of the road and then walking up the trail to Motianli. I should mention that many of the trails, even in the most isolated places were trails built with cement bricks. Many of the hills had stairs built again with cement blocks. A lot of time and money went into building and maintaining these trails. We saw very few other people on these high mountain trails. We did see many "good" birds including the colorful golden pheasant, hard to believe the numbers of color that bird had. After lunch we headed south on our long drive to Chengdu. We drove past many small mountain towns and villages, some old, some new. Again there were many tall apartment buildings, some finished, some occupied. Chengdu is the capital of the Sichuan Province and was a city on the Silk Road. When we drove through the city center we noticed the quality named stores - I can't remember all the names because they are brands I could never afford, like Chanel, Prada, and so forth. It is a destination place for shoppers. The architecture is amazing. The architects must have been given free reign because I have never seen such an amazing variety of designs. Last year they had what was at that time the largest building in the world here. We were surprised when we stopped in front of the very elegant Jinjiang Hotel where we were greeted by very elegant door men - maybe Arabs who spoke English and didn't bat an eye at our disheveled birding attire and filthy hiking books. It would have been fun to explore this place - it was very large with lots of activities. Fortunately we had time to clean up and then join the group f or a buffet dinner. The room with the food was very large with a large variety of food, some Western, some Chinese. Lots of fish too - first time there was such a large selection of fish, also plenty of bread, fruit, salads, even ice cream. The Chinese do not eat many milk and cheese products but we had plenty here, even yogurt in the morning for breakfast.

Friday 4/25/14 After an enjoyable breakfast of mostly western style food we left for the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Centre. It was windy and raining when we started but stopped eventually. We walked around and birded and also saw the various pandas, both Giant and Red pandas. They do a lot of work here to breed pandas for the wild and other zoos. We had lunch somewhere and drove to the airport where we flew to Beijing. Security was a breeze this time - I took everything out even though they said I didn't have to. We stayed at Citic Hotel Beijing Airport, which made it a short drive to the hotel. We had a lovely two hours to clean up and catch up on notes and so forth before we went down for dinner. We ate at the Swiss Chalet and each ordered individually so we had Western Food for a change. The hotel also had some interesting shops where I eventually ended up buying a couple of souvenirs.

Saturday 4/26/14 We met in the lobby at 5:45 and then had a quick breakfast in the restaurant - nice they were open so early. We left at 6:15 to catch a two-hour flight to WuLanHaote (or UlanHot), which used to be the capital of Inner Mongolia. (This area along with the Jilin Province where we also birded was historically known as Manchuria.) Here we were in an entirely different environment than before, the land was flat with very few mountains/hills in the distance. We drove through lots of farmland growing a variety of vegetables many in greenhouses. Again many small towns and many tall apartment buildings. We met our new local guide Mr. Li who knew where to take us for lunch, a fast food restaurant in Horqin Youyi Zhonggi (or Kerquin Youyi Zhanggi). We had a delicious bowl of noodle soup. We were each served a bowl of noodles and broth along with bowls of things to add into it - peanuts, vegetables, and so forth. It was very good. Then we drove some distances on the scrub steppe to look for the Jankowski's Bunting, a bird close to extinction because of habitat loss. Very few are left in the world and in fact China may have the only remaining population of about 100 left. We were fortunate to be able to find the bird. We are currently at 46 degrees north so we have found the temperature a little cooler than before. By the way even though China is about the same distance east to west as the U.S. it has only one time zone, Beijing time. It makes dawn at very different times throughout the country. We then continued on a very long drive to a "hotel" in a Nature Reserve. This was a very difficult hour and a half; the road was non-existent in places, muddy, very narrow, very bumpy, and very isolated in places. I even wondered if we were lost. We finally arrived at eight o'clock after a 15-hour day. We did have dinner here - I don't remember what. I do remember there was a problem with our room, we were all on the first floor but our lock was broken. We said we didn't care but after much discussion the problem was if we closed the door we couldn't open it at all. So we suggested they just give us another room, which they finally agreed to do, but it had to be on the second floor. Turns out we were lucky as we were the only ones with hot water for a shower. I did have to repair the toilet though. I believe we were at the Xiang Hai Nature Reserve.

Sunday 4/27/14 The group went birding before breakfast but I didn't go - I needed some catch up time so I enjoyed an hour and then went out and walked around by myself until I caught up with the group. We had breakfast of some buns, rice porridge, fried bread, eggs, and pbj sandwiches. Then we walked around to see more birds, as this area was wetlands. The group went back to see the Oriental Stork as the group had seen it in the early morning walk on a nest. The group actually was glad to return as the Stork got up off the nest and displayed. It is an endangered bird, no longer in Japan and Korea and only a very small population (maybe 100) in this area of China. We left this area to drive north towards Baicheng. We would have stayed two nights at this place except for the lack of hot water and other plumbing problems. It is interesting that this place was built here and could be a destination place for birders and other nature lovers but the lack of maintenance does not attack customers. The building isn't that old. We drove to a place were we walked out to see cranes, white-napped and red-crowned which was great. One of the Red-crowned cranes was banded and used to humans so followed us around and even pinched our guide, Donna. We left soon after that and eventually we arrived at Baicheng - a large city on the border of Inner Mongolia and Jilin provinces. This city is a busy city with lots of traffic and many high rises interspersed with small and dark shops selling many different things. The hotel, Baicheng Hexiang Hotel was in the midst of all of this activity with a very high-class lobby. Our rooms were a little less so - the bathroom was the type with an open shower, no ledge or wall between the shower and the rest of the room. The drain was in the middle of the room and since it was very slow the floor was always wet. We also commented on how hard the bed was and we discovered it was only a box spring with a few blankets on it under the sheet. I guess the mattresses went elsewhere. I think we ate dinner here.

Monday 4/28/14 We did have a buffet breakfast this morning of very traditional Chinese foods. I did try some of it including the popular sticky buns; I found them to be very tasteless dough so I ended up with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The town was very busy, even early in the morning. We saw groups of people doing exercises together in a couple of plazas. We drove about two hours northeast out to the plains or steppe where we hoped to see the Siberian Cranes at Wan Bao Shay. We passed a lot of places where a large number of trees have been planted and are still being planted. The government is doing this across many areas - partly for looks and partly to replace the trees that were cut down during Mao's regime when the trees were clear cut to make lots of steel. We had a picnic lunch somewhere along the way, pbj served rather inelegantly from the bus.When we got to the crane location we met some people who live there and they had a lot of discussion with Mr. Li. We never did find out what that was about but eventually the bus was parked and we were able to go through the gate of the reserve and we walked and we walked to finally see the Siberian Cranes. They were far away but we had good views of them in the distance and flying overhead. There may only be about 2000 Siberian Cranes left in the wild and they all winter in this area. In May they fly back to Siberia where they mate and breed. It was really a wonderful sight to see. We did more birding and then the long drive back to our hotel for dinner.

Tuesday 4/29/14 Today we headed out to Tumuge - one of the few remaining native grassland and steppe habitat. We were looking for a bustard, which we did find here. We had a lunch stop at a small family run restaurant and had the best noodle soup of the trip. In the afternoon we went to a nearby town, Zhen Lar Nan Huge that had a park with wetlands and we birded that area. We had a lot of photos taken while there, both young and old stopped to stare at us. We asked Donna to tell them what we were doing. Peggy posed with a lot of young people, both children and teens for photos. We really are an anomaly in this area. We drove back to the hotel in time to clean up and walk to a restaurant where we had what I thought was the best meal of the trip. It was a small kitchen cafe that made dumplings. We could watch the two guys making them - one took a small ball of dough and flattened it out, the other guy filled it with various prepared fillings and then steamed it. Each batch brought to the table was different with fillings of pork, beef, chicken, egg, vegetables, each mixed with delicate seasonings and sauce. I could have easily eaten way too many, they were so good. I've never had anything like these dumplings in California, not even at the "best" Chinese Restaurants. Nice ending to our time in this area.

Wednesday 4/30/14 We left early in the morning and drove to WulanHot for a flight back to Beijing. We stayed in the same airport hotel as before. In the afternoon we drove out to the Olympic Forest Park and did some birding in the area. We saw the "Bird's Nest" from the 2008 Olympics. The traffic around this area was really thick - even in the middle of the day. We went back to the hotel in time to clean up for dinner. We had our final dinner together and said our good byes. After dinner both Lennie and I went back to a man who was selling some glass globes that we were interested in the last time we were here. He offered me one for a lower price than before and even less each when I bought two. I don't even know how much I paid but I wanted them and I'm happy with them. Likewise Lennie who got what she wanted for less than the former price and we didn't even have to bargain hard for them. Our guide told us they were too expensive and she told him too the last time we were there so I'm sure that helped. I gave him a couple of American dollars too, which he seemed very pleased about.

Thursday 5/1/14 Lennie and I had a nice breakfast. The hotel was filled with more Caucasians than we've seen in the whole time in China, some kind of convention or something else. We left for the airport at 9:00 for a noon direct flight to San Francisco. We arrived home at 9:00 AM - 3 hours on the same day before we left China. (Actually 12 hours later.) Lennie's brother picked us up which was a treat. It was a good trip with many amazing experiences. I did find it exhausting at times which makes me think I may be of an age to have to slow down a bit, hate to admit it though.

I saw 183 species of birds - the group list was 224 species. 110 species were new for me so my life list is about 2857 species. I have now seen 180 of 230 families and 33 of 34 orders of birds. (Have to go to Madagascar for the remaining order!)

Mammals we saw were:

Golden Snub-nosed Monkey Pygathrix roxellanae

Tibetan Macaque Macaca thibetana

River Otter Lutra lutra

Reeve’s Muntjac Muntiacus reevesi

Takin Budorcas taxicolor

Chinese Goral Nemorhaedus griseus

Pere David’s Rock Squirrel Sciurotamias davidianus

Daurian Ground Squirrel Spermophilus dauricus

Tolai Hare Lepus tolai

My photos are posted at Picasa and this may be the link for them:

https://picasaweb.google.com/107016762716933443671/China417302014

A recent ABA article on the growth of birding in China can be found at:

http://aba.org/birding/birding454zhang.pdf

My Bird List

Swan Goose

Tundra Bean-Goose

Mute Swan

Tundra Swan

Ruddy Shelduck

Common Shelduck

Mandarin Duck

Gadwall

Falcated Duck

Eurasian Wigeon

Mallard

Eastern Spot-billed Duck

Northern Shoveler

Northern Pintail

Garganey

Green-winged Teal

Red-crested Pochard

Common Pochard

Tufted Duck

Common Merganser

Daurian Partridge

Common Goldeneye

Ring-necked Pheasant

Golden Pheasant

Little Grebe

Great Crested Grebe

Eared Grebe

Oriental Stork

Great Cormorant

Great Bittern

Gray Heron

Purple Heron

Great Egret

Little Egret

Chinese Pond-Heron

Black-crowned Night-Heron

Crested Ibis

Golden Eagle

Gray-faced Buzzard

Eastern Marsh-Harrier

Eurasian Sparrowhawk

Northern Goshawk

Black Kite

Common Buzzard

Great Bustard

Eurasian Moorhen

Eurasian Coot

Cinereous Vulture

Greater Spotted Eagle

Siberian Crane

White-naped Crane

Common Crane

Red-crowned Crane

Black-winged Stilt

Pied Avocet

Northern Lapwing

Gray-headed Lapwing

Kentish Plover

Long-billed Plover

Little Ringed Plover

Common Sandpiper

Green Sandpiper

Spotted Redshank

Common Greenshank

Marsh Sandpiper

Common Redshank

Eurasian Curlew

Black-tailed Godwit

Temminck's Stint

Common Snipe

Swinhoe's Snipe

Oriental Pratincole

Black-headed Gull

Caspian Gull

Little Tern

Common Tern

Pallas's Sandgrouse

Rock Pigeon

Oriental Turtle-Dove

Eurasian Collared-Dove

Spotted Dove

Little Owl

Common Swift

Salim Ali's Swift

Common Kingfisher

Crested Kingfisher

Eurasian Hoopoe

Gray-capped Woodpecker

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Gray-faced Woodpecker

Eurasian Kestrel

Amur Falcon

Eurasian Hobby

Long-tailed Shrike

Gray-backed Shrike

Chinese Gray Shrike

Eurasian Jay

Azure-winged Magpie

Red-billed Blue-Magpie

Eurasian Magpie

Daurian Jackdaw

Rook

Carrion Crow

Large-billed Crow

Collared Crow

Mongolian Lark

Lesser Short-toed Lark

Sky Lark

Oriental Skylark

Pale Sand Martin

Barn Swallow

Red-rumped Swallow

Gray-headed Canary-Flycatcher

Marsh Tit

Yellow-bellied Tit

Great Tit

Green-backed Tit

Chinese Penduline-Tit

Black-throated Tit

Sooty Tit

Mountain Bulbul

Eurasian Nuthatch

Brown Dipper

Collared Finchbill

Brown-breasted Bulbul

Light-vented Bulbul

Pygmy Cupwing

Plain-tailed Warbler

Pallas's Leaf-Warbler

Chinese Leaf-Warbler

Yellow-browed Warbler

Claudia's Leaf-Warbler

Kloss's Leaf-Warbler

Emei Leaf-Warbler

Chestnut-crowned Warbler

Striated Prinia

Golden-breasted Fulvetta

Vinous-throated Parrotbill

White-collared Yuhina

Japanese White-eye

Chinese Hwamei

White-browed Laughingthrush

Elliot's Laughingthrush

Brown-breasted Flycatcher

Oriental Magpie-Robin

Blue Whistling-Thrush

Little Forktail

White-crowned Forktail

Red-flanked Bluetail

Plumbeous Redstart

White-capped Redstart

Daurian Redstart

Blue Rock-Thrush

Siberian Stonechat

Eurasian Blackbird

Dusky Thrush

Crested Myna

Red-billed Starling

White-cheeked Starling

Red-throated Thrush

Fire-breasted Flowerpecker

Gould's Sunbird

Western Yellow Wagtail

Eastern Yellow Wagtail

Citrine Wagtail

Gray Wagtail

White Wagtail

Richard's Pipit

Water Pipit

Slaty Bunting

Meadow Bunting

Rufous-backed Bunting

Red-throated Pipit

Chestnut-eared Bunting

Little Bunting

Yellow-throated Bunting

Black-faced Bunting

Pallas's Bunting

Reed Bunting

Oriental Greenfinch

Russet Sparrow

White-rumped Munia

Eurasian Tree Sparrow

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