Managing Jetlag

Being in the travel business, my friends and colleagues frequently ask me how do I deal with jetlag when travelling to Asia. So I thought I would share my travel tips with you.

1. Adjust your internal and external clock before you board the plane. When travelling to Asia I try to minimize the amount of time I sleep on the plane as most flights arrive in the afternoon/evening. By the time I have cleared customs, picked up my bags and checked into my hotel, it is time for a light dinner and then bedtime!

2. Take short naps, but never for more than an hour. This is probably the hardest thing to do as your body is desperately asking for more sleep.

3. Do not sleep in late and try to be active first thing in the morning. Taking an early morning walking tour is a great way to see the city and get some fresh air and sunlight.

4. Drink lots of water to avoid dehydration.

5. Try to avoid caffeine. Let your body try to find its natural sleep rhythm, adding a cup of joe will delay the adjustment.

Best regards,

Otis Ashby
Sales & Operations

A Taste Of China

By Dee Walmsley


Most westerners were given a glimpse of Beijing's unique architecture during the Olympics; the bird's nest and water cube are the most architecturally stunning and technically engineered permanent structures that remain. However, those images failed to convey the cleanliness and floral beauty of the host country. Today the straw-wrapped trees [a trick to conserve moisture], flower-filled baskets, and foliage-filled medians dress the entire landscape.

The Chinese love the colour red. They believe it brings them luck and prosperity and it is everywhere: red and gold shine throughout Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City's palace.

Built between 1750-1764, during the Qing Dynasty, the Summer Palace boasts the largest imperial garden in China. Situated on a lake, its use of rocks, plants, pavilions, ponds and covered walkways provide a taste of history and a photographer's delight.

The brilliant blue Temple of Heaven, constructed from 1406 to 1420, is where the Emperor prayed each winter for good weather and crops: if they failed, so could his reign. The entire structure uses numbers. For example, the number nine, considered the most powerful digit: nine slabs are used to form the temple's circular altar. Pillars and columns represent days and months. In order to appreciate these structures fully, study their history prior to visiting the site.

Beijing, once called Peking, is the capital city and known as "Old China." Highlights include a trek along the grey-stoned Great Wall and sitting back in a red rickshaw while a smiling guide peddles you through a Hutong (lanes and alleys) formed by lines of siheyuan, a typical form of Chinese architecture where houses surround a courtyard. This tour gives visitors a taste of old Beijing, including a visit inside a siheyuan.

Shoppers and souvenir hunters will want to visit a cloisonné workshop to watch this ancient art form in action. Cloisonné refers to a decorative or ornamental enamelwork where delicate thin wires of gold, silver, brass or copper are fused to a metal plate in the form of a design. The cells in the design or cloisonnés are filled with vitreous enamel. Thin metal wire or metal strips separate each compartment or coloured area. A paste form of enamel is heated to join the enamel to the surface resulting in high gloss products from glowing jewelry to magnificent vases.

Before departing the city, restaurant connoisseurs must feast on Peking duck, a true delicacy especially the crispy skin, Beijing dumplings and the ever-popular dim sum, a treasure trove of steamed surprises.

A two-hour flight to Wuhan with its 60 universities makes this city the "educational centre" of China. A highlight is exploring the Provincial Museum, where 200,000 cultural relics from intricately painted pottery, jade carvings and bronze vessels are on display. Also featured are the Bianzhong bells, which were unearthed in 1978 from the 2,400-year-old tomb of "Marquis" Yi along with a 125-piece orchestra and 25 musicians. Costumed musicians play a replica of the chimes daily.

The Yangtze River, which originates in Tibet, is the longest river in China and the third longest in the world; enjoy a tour of the Yangtze Three Gorges from YiChang to Chongqing or Shanghai. The riverboats are comfortable and the food is fantastic while navigating down a long gorge guarded by stone cliffs. In 1994, the gorge was flooded to begin work on the Three Gorges Dam, which resulted in controversy and concern for inhabitants who lived along the river. Today, over 80,000 have been relocated either higher up the cliffs or on farmland. One of the cliff walls supports a lone Ba hanging coffin – an ancient ethnic Chinese custom of placing the dead body in a coffin and hanging it over a precipice.

Changing to a sampan, a small flat-bottomed Chinese boat crewed by five glistening oarsmen, we traverse the Shennong Stream where we are delighted to see golden-haired monkeys bathing in the clear water. All along the riverbanks, next to forgotten tombs, caves and foliage, cliff swallows build their nests. Stone steps and crumbling walls disappear into cobalt waters. The sound of a flute fills the air; perched at the entrance to a cave sits a man in blue joyfully serenading nature. When the water becomes shallow, the oarsmen hop onto the riverbank and with bamboo ropes pull the vessel through the narrows.

Back aboard the cruise ship *Sunshine*, we make our way to foreboding Fengdu, "the Ghost City" land of spirits. There are 75 Buddha and Tao temples in the town of Fengdu, most of them gathered on a famous hill named Ming Mountain, the legendary Taoist spirit world. Grotesque statues border temple entrances where displays of hideous tortures keep flash bulbs popping and children hiding in their mother's skirts.

Travellers disembark in Chongqing and fly to Xian for a quick walk through the most famous Buddhist pagoda built in 589 AD - the Wild Goose Temple. It is a land of red and gold. The sweet aroma of incense permeates the air as worshippers bow and pray before temple gates. Big Buddha, an 18-metre-high statue carved from one magnificent sandalwood tree, is stunning, as are an array of Buddhist sculptures throughout the pagodas.

Next stop, the incredible Terra-Cotta Museum: touted as the biggest on-site museum in China. In 1974, farmers drilling wells in search of water came upon pottery fragments and bronze weapons. The find was immediately reported to government officials and an archaeological team deployed to unearth an army of 7,000 plus soldiers, horses and chariots, birds and even some construction workers who were buried alive while guarding Emperor Qin's tomb since 210 BC. Today, a work in progress, the excavation and reconstruction continues. Visitors are encouraged to purchase the book *The Qin Dynasty Terra-cotta Army of Dreams* in the museum gift shop, where the farmer who discovered it all sits waiting to autograph each copy. The contents of this publication are not only enlightening but also contain a fascinating history.

On to Suzhou and the silk market where the life cycle of the silkworm is explained as we listen to the worms crunching mulberry leaves. We learn the intricacies of removing worms from cocoons, spinning and weaving hair-thin threads and lastly a shoppers delight browsing silk products from clothing to lighter-than-air duvets. The stretching of silk fibres for the duvets is an experience unto itself and definitely not for the feeble.

The Master of Nets garden is breathtaking, as are the residential buildings within. Imagine sitting overlooking a pond of lotus blossoms listening to each raindrop's song on the lush green leaves while a curtain of pearls cascades from a nearby roof and you, sipping green tea, compose one poem after another.

Words cannot describe the artisanship at the Embroidery Institute, where one piece of cloth with two very different designs on opposite sides is pure magic.Visit the Zhujiajiao Watertown, China's Venice, complete with boat cruises and local shops. This tour gives one a real insight into everyday living as we peek inside shops and cafes.

Finally, Shanghai, China's city of the future: 20 years ago, much of the land was a rice paddy. Today, construction cranes work endlessly building futuristic high-rise homes, hotels, restaurants and work places for the city's nearly 19 million people. The construction crane is now the official bird of Shanghai. Ride the elevator in the 88-stories JinMao Tower at 30 feet per second and not feel a thing. See the Oriental Pearl Tower lit at night as you stroll the Bund and enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of Shanghai. Plan to return, as this city is a tourist's dream well worth exploring.

This taste of China's engineering, technology and natural beauty is only a chopstick's view of a vast evolving country. A little pre-tour net surfing into one's itinerary is highly recommended as this country's history and culture is far beyond the retention of any tourist's mind.

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Used with permission from http://www.seniorlivingmag.com/

Back to the Wall

Last week I had the opportunity to visit the Great Wall of China. This excursion was my 4th time to the Wall; however, it was my first time to the Mutianyu section of the Wall.

So, what is so special about the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall? For starters, this section is much further from Beijing than the other popular sections of the wall such as Badaling. Second of all, the stairs and walkways are also much steeper than the Badaling section.

But if you have the time and sense of adventure, I highly recommend that you make the trip to Mutianyu. The crowds are minimal, the contrast of scenery is much more dramatic and if you are a shutterbug, there are lots of opportunities to capture that perfect picture of this man made wonder.

Best regards,

Otis Ashby
Sales & Operations

Blissful Bali Spring Break Special

Chinapac International offers Bali tour, an exciting and popular destination for the upcoming spring break. Departures are guaranteed from major Canadian cities including Vancouver, Calgary & Toronto plus an early booking bonus offer.

With spring break distantly nearing, travelers will be delighted to learn what Chinapac International has up its sleeves: 10 Days of Blissful Bali.

A new and hot destination this season, Bali is set to treat its visitors a true tropical paradise with a promising sun and fine sand. This Bali tour, which departs March 17, 2011, will take participants to the Love setting of the novel-based box office Eat Pray Love. Scenic tours from unique Rice Terraces to high mountain peaks, visits to sacred temples & villages plus Balinese cultural shows are all part of this Bali tour with still plenty of time to enjoy the beach and unwind.

Travelers are entitled to select 3-star accommodations at the Parigata Resort or 5-star accommodations at the Grand Mirage Bali Resort.
10 Day Blissful Bali Spring Break Special offers full land and air package starting from $1449 per person. And as a bonus offer, early bookings will receive a bottle of wine upon arrival or a 60 minute full body massage voucher. Tour departures from Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa are guaranteed with minimum of 2 persons.

Chinapac International specializes in travel service to China and the Orient and is proud to celebrate 25 successful years in the travel industry as the premier travel package tour operator to the People's Republic of China and South East Asia.

For more information, visit www.chinapac.com

We Are All One People of This World

By Dale Kelly, Victoria, BC, Canada

From February 3 to May 25 of 2010 my wife Lorna, and I left Canada and traveled to Laos, Cambodia, Viet Nam, China, and Japan. We ended our four-month journey in Japan at Gyokuryuji Temple. I am a student of Shinzan Miyamae Roshi, the Abbot of Gyokuryuji.

In all five of these countries the people have been deeply influenced by Buddhism. We wanted contact with ordinary people as much as possible as well as visiting Buddhist temples, monasteries, and gardens along the way. This joint installment includes observations from Laos, Cambodia, and Viet Nam, with China and Japan to follow in the next installment.

We realize that writing this reflection is an abstraction from our lived experience; however, while we were traveling we were completely absorbed in the moment with our experiences. Now we can look at our photographs, reflect on our memories and recall the high points of the trip. We have been asked many times since returning: Why would two Canadians travel in Asia for four months and what where the high points of this experience?

From Victoria we flew to Bangkok via Seattle and Seoul. From Bangkok we flew the following morning to Vientiane, Laos where we stayed for one week. Our ‘Bed and Breakfast’ hotel room on the fifth floor was in a wonderful location with a balcony overlooking a Buddhist monastery and the Mekong River. About five o’clock each morning, while it was still dark, the bell in the monastery rang making a loud “gong”, dogs barked, and a few minutes later the monks silently headed out in single file carrying their bowls for their daily begging walk. People sitting or standing near the edge of the road, sometimes by candlelight, gave offerings to the monks as they passed by.

Vientiane is the center of Lao Buddhism with many active temples and monasteries. This gave us an opportunity to visit some of the most famous such as the ‘World-Precious Sacred Stupa,’ built in 1566. It is the most important national monument in Laos and home of the Supreme Patriarch of Lao Buddhism.

Also, among the many temples we visited, Wat Si Saket, now a museum is the oldest in the city. The architectural styles, the statues, the icons of Buddhism, were stunning, demanding wholehearted attention at every turn. This experience of becoming totally absorbed in what we are doing is one of the major draws for my wife and I traveling in foreign lands.

Zazen (sitting meditation) is very important, however, Hakuin said, “To practice Zen in movement is superior to doing so in the stillness of meditation.” The practice of “kufu” (absorbed, alert attention) can be the Zen practice of the traveler.

“Walk like a cow.
Look like a tiger!” - Roshi Miyamae

After a week of new sights, sounds, smells, foods and customs of a dramatically different culture, we flew to Luang Prabang, the ancient capital of Laos where there were many more Buddhist sites to visit. We stayed there for almost three weeks, which gave us plenty of time to explore and talk with local people.


At one point we took an excursion out of Luang Prabang to an Elephant Camp where we stayed for three days and nights. We chose a company that had policies of taking good care of the elephants and working with the local hill tribe people. On the way to the camp we were introduced to several different minority people in their villages. Another day we kayaked along a tributary of the Mekong River and one morning at 7 am we helped to bathe elephants in the river, scrubbing their backs with long handled brushes. Later in the day, while riding on the elephants in a kind of bamboo chair for two, we viewed the jungle highlights from this lofty perch, an exciting way to gain a new perspective.

Lorna and I like to eat foods of other cultures. So everywhere throughout the trip we ate the local food. Thus, openness to foods, cultures, and contact with local people characterized our intent as travelers. Openness, a Buddhist practice, is emphasized by the following quote:

As for ‘effecting openness,’ The Book of Balance and Harmony says, “Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism – all simply transmit openness. Throughout all time, those who have transcended have done the work from within openness…learning Buddhism is meditation plunging into openness…

Thomas Cleary. The Secret of the Golden Flower. The Classic Chinese Book of Life. Harper/San Francisco. 1991, p.115

In early March we flew to Siem Reap, Cambodia where we stayed for a week at a fascinating B & B, a converted French Villa. For five days, in 37-38 degree Celsius heat, we toured the main area of the Angkor Archaeological Park, and also some of the more outlying ruins. The temple ruins, just north of Siem Reap, are the remnants of the Angkorean Wat, the largest ancient religious site in the world. There are many Angkorean-era ruins scattered across all of Cambodia as well as parts of Thailand, Laos and Vietnam.

From Siem Reap we headed to Vietnam where we spent another month. We flew via Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), to Phu Quoc Island which is located in the Gulf of Thailand, 15 km south just off the coast of Cambodia, A small, relatively undeveloped island, Phu Quoc Island is known for its pearl farms, black pepper, fish sauce and white sandy beaches, a beautiful spot for a quiet meditative retreat. After eight days on Phu Quoc we flew back to Saigon (HCMC).

In the next few paragraphs Lorna tells of her experience in Saigon with a bookseller.

People travel for many reasons, of course. Dale and I have an intense interest in other cultures, especially in the lived experience of the people. We are both most interested in relating to the local people and listening to their stories of their lives, as well as sharing ours. There is much to appreciate in each country: the natural environment, the historical context, the foods, yet, it is the people that interest us most; who they are. We travel with curiosity, always willingness to engage with the people.

My repeated experience is that when I carry this openness into my contact with other people an openness to engage is often reciprocated.

Dale and I experienced this on many occasions. On our first morning in Ho Chi Minh City, we walked out onto the streets in search of a place to have breakfast, passing by the local vendors who had set up small plastic stools and tables as cafes on the sidewalks. About five minutes from our hotel we were able to find a street with many indoor cafes to choose from for breakfast. We chose one where the front of the café was completely open to the street so that we could have an unobstructed view to the all the activity of the street. It was such a delight to observe local street life from our perspective while sitting at the table. Shortly after ordering breakfast a young male vendor in his early twenties, approached our table selling sunglasses. We waved him on pointing to the tops of our heads where our sunglasses sat. Moments later a female vendor in her thirties selling paperback books entered the restaurant. She approached us with the very heavy looking tall stack of books she carried on her right shoulder. They were copied books, many of them the latest and most popular novels and travel books.

Given my interest in local people, I was open to engaging with this woman, rather than see her as a nuisance. I had no interest in purchasing any book yet I chose not to turn this woman away. I was interested in her and began to engage her in a conversation. The conversation centered on the books, and she would introduce each one to me, and I in turn would respond, depending on the book and my awareness of it. I was impressed and surprised to learn that the woman had a great deal of knowledge about many of the books she was selling and we had lovely experience discussing them. Through the medium of the books we talked about our lives and ourselves. A wonderfully rich experience!

We explored Saigon (HCMC) for three more days before flying to Danang, and then traveling by car to Hoi An: a wonderful little bicycle friendly town—easy to get around, quiet, mellow, full of history, and many tailor shops. Hoi An has many historical sites of Japanese and Chinese traders who exchanged goods here between the seventh and tenth centuries.
After ten days of exploring northern Viet Nam we were back in Hanoi once again where we boarded the evening train for our two-day/two night train trip to Beijing, China. On April 11 we arrived in the political and cultural centre of the world's most populous nation. And here begins another series of remarkable
experiences and stories for the next installment.