{"id":48,"date":"2008-01-20T16:38:00","date_gmt":"2008-01-20T16:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2008\/01\/vacation-to-china.html"},"modified":"2008-01-20T16:38:00","modified_gmt":"2008-01-20T16:38:00","slug":"vacation-to-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2008\/01\/vacation-to-china.html","title":{"rendered":"Vacation to CHINA!"},"content":{"rendered":"

My attempt at another high-class activity posting.<\/p>\n

Wouldn’t it be cool to get to spend the Year of the Dragon Chinese New Year in BEIJING, of all places? Well, Dave and I had that privledge, but the Chinese tour guide didn’t think there’d be anything for us to see in that department, so we didn’t see anything related to Chinese New Year.<\/p>\n

In February 2000, while we were stationed in Korea, Dave and I went with two other Air Force couples on a 4-day tour of Beijing via a Korean travel agency that catered to English-speakers. It was neat to spend time with non-military English speakers living in Korea, such as English teachers from Canada, Great Britain and Australia.<\/p>\n

The tour was a cultural experience in and of itself. They were very strict about what we were and weren’t allowed to see. All of our shopping experiences were regimented and we went to these state-run souvenier stores. Souveniers were definitely more expensive than necessary. Lucky for us, one of the AF gals with us launched a cultural revolution of her own and threatened the tour guide and bus driver that she wouldn’t get back on the bus at the Great Wall until we went to a “real” tourist shopping area. It worked, we went to this area of tents nearby and got SO MUCH for probably 10% of what we would have had to pay at the state-run stores!<\/p>\n

I came back with some awesome souveniers — it’s funny, a lot of the younger people on the trip were buying things like stuffed panda bears with light-up red eyes, Little Red Books, and Chairman Mao hats. I was looking for art and jewelry. And that’s what I found. We got a plum blossom watercolor art print from a street vendor for about $5 that we framed up back in Seoul…it was gorgeous. Unfortunately, the movers between FL and NC lost it!<\/p>\n

I brought back cloissone vases, silk kites and a wonderful jade bracelet.<\/p>\n

So enjoy these pictures and go here<\/a> for some more.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
With Chairman Mao at Tiannamen Square.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
From 2000 02 06 China<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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At the Great Wall. The climb was quite challenging…we were warned to dress appropriately, although some of the girls still wore high heeled shoes on that day.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
From 2000 02 06 China<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My attempt at another high-class activity posting. Wouldn’t it be cool to get to spend the Year of the Dragon Chinese New Year in BEIJING, of all places? Well, Dave and I had that privledge, but the Chinese tour guide didn’t think there’d be anything for us to see in that department, so we didn’t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[],"tags":[39,37,38],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ycQ0-M","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":358,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2009\/06\/road-trip-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":48,"position":0},"title":"ROAD TRIP!","date":"12 June 09","format":false,"excerpt":"Tomorrow morning we leave on vacation.\"Whoo hoo! It's about friggin' time! You haven't really had a real vacation in a couple years, have you?\"No, I guess not. We had that fabulous trip to Fort Fisher\/Kure Beach, NC back in July 2007. That was a really fun time, the most relaxed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"family\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5898,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2022\/08\/european-vacation-a-few-final-thoughts.html","url_meta":{"origin":48,"position":1},"title":"European Vacation: A Few Final Thoughts","date":"20 August 22","format":false,"excerpt":"A poster I encountered during our walking food tour of Paris. Our family was available to do this concert, and I tried to make a case to go, but was vetoed. 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It was raining when the cruise started but\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/image-131.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1783,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2013\/02\/happy-valentines-day-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":48,"position":3},"title":"Happy Valentine’s Day","date":"14 February 13","format":false,"excerpt":"We had a fun day today. I got to spend time with each of the boys at their schools. Then we went out to dinner at one of the very few restaurants that the four of us can agree on. Unfortunately, when you order sushi while everyone else ordered off\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"holiday\"","img":{"alt_text":"Flowers from Dave, balloons from me. The balloons didn't look quite that big in the large Party City store...funny how that works.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/IMG_5673-768x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":424,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2010\/04\/lost-in-translation-not-anymore.html","url_meta":{"origin":48,"position":4},"title":"Lost in Translation? Not anymore!","date":"07 April 10","format":false,"excerpt":"On two recent blog posts here, there are comments written in Chinese characters.This one: http:\/\/vollmerdp.blogspot.com\/2010\/03\/big-top-cupcake-love-it-or-loathe-it.htmlAnd this one: http:\/\/vollmerdp.blogspot.com\/2010\/04\/garden-season.htmlThe first one went up on March 14th, and I get the comments sent to my e-mail account. So there's all this Chinese in my inbox.What do you THINK I'm going to do\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"blogging\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":452,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2010\/08\/colorado-discoveries-part-2-golden-co.html","url_meta":{"origin":48,"position":5},"title":"Colorado Discoveries: Part 2 — Golden, CO","date":"23 August 10","format":false,"excerpt":"After Rose's Saturday night reception, we checked out of the hotel on Sunday morning and enjoyed a beautiful drive up to Golden, about 25 miles west of Denver. 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