October in China Pt 1

This will be a multi part travelogue. I'll cover our trip from October 12 to November 3rd and the sights and experiences we encountered as well as some commentary on travelling in China. I realize there have been a bunch of politically charged things going on with China but I am going to leave that alone, and just focus on the great trip we experienced. 

We had planned this trip for several months. Qiuyan is a fairly recent immigrant from China having been here in the US only around 10 years or so. She had not been back home in over 6 years so it was going to be a homecoming for her as well as a touristy/meet the family trip for me. Knowing we wanted to be gone for 3 weeks I had to get that cleared with my boss before I made any serious plans. It ended up not being a problem. I was rather fortunate in April of this year, that the Kansas City Chinese American Association was hosting a visa event at our church. So it was super convenient to get the visa handled. That and I got the 10 year visa so I can travel there anytime I like the next ten years. Since I had points through American Express I used American Express Travel to book the flights. The process is pretty simple and easily handled online without assistance from an agent.

The plan was to fly to Beijing spend a couple days there then take the high speed train to Qiuyan's hometown of Siping, in Jilin Province. About 2 months out I booked the hotel through Orbitz https://www.orbitz.com/ . I have used them through the years and have always been pleased with the price I have paid. With help from Qiuyan's daughter (who works in the travel industry in China) we found a hotel close to the Beijing Train Station. Close in that it was right across the street. Very convenient as it turned out. Train tickets are available for purchase 30 days from the travel date. After looking online I decided to use Travel China Guide to arrange my tickets. They are used by TripAdvisor as well so I was confident that the service was going to be good. Pretty easy low tech affair, but it was simple and they sent me multiple email notifications during the ticket buying process as well as offering a service to deliver the tickets to our hotel. I took advantage of this just because I did not want to have to worry about things as we were getting ready to travel again. I wanted to know I had everything lined up. 

A week or so later I booked some tours in Beijing. Since we were only staying a couple days I wanted to cram in as much as possible without being stupid about it. I planned a night tour of the city lights the day we arrived, then a two day tour to see some of the sights in the area. I booked these through Travel China Guide, and again I was very happy with the service. Here is a link to their website for those of you that may be interested https://www.travelchinaguide.com/

The morning of October 12 came, Travel Day!. I was pretty stoked and had no problem getting going in the morning. We took the short drive to the Kansas City International area, to one of the local hotels. I had looked up lower parking rates, and found that many of the hotels in the area rent out parking spaces at a much reduced rate. Mine was almost half the cost of the airport. A significant savings for the length of trip we were taking. The hotel shuttle dropped us off at the terminal and in we went. We were leaving early so it was painless getting checked in and through security. I had picked American Airlines due to the price and the fact I could get a "one day" flight to Beijing. Originally we were to fly KC-PHX-LAX-Beijing. About 45 days prior to the day we were advised our trip had been changed to KC-DFW-Beijing., then returning through LAX-DFW-KC. This was no problem and we were actually arriving in Beijing an hour earlier., or so we thought.The flight to DFW was delayed a little due to a mechanical problem but we got to DFW in plenty of time to get on the next flight. We were ready to leave DFW early when we were called back to the gate, somebody forgot to service the toilets! Well, 45 minutes to an hour later we were finally on our way. We were flying in the Dreamliner, which was pretty comfortable considering we were in economy and I am 6'-3" tall and around 230 pounds. I was mostly comfortable during the flight, and there was ample space to hang out in the galley area. Probably should have taken advantage of that more than I did. They had a good slate of movies so I was entertained during the 15 hour flight. They were not able to make up time so we arrived in Beijing about an hour late. Upon arrival in Beijing, customs is fairly straight forward and simple. You get a form on the plane to fill out, you go to a kiosk to have your finger prints scanned, then go wait in line to be processed through. I was lucky here. Since Qiuyan is still a citizen I was able to go with her in the citizens line, and we got through much quicker. I was photographed and re-scanned for fingerprints at that station. I was given a stub for my return which was tucked neatly into my passport, and away we went. Originally, I was going to have a private driver pick us up at the airport but Qiuyan insisted on taking the shuttle bus to the train station. Since the station was across the street from the hotel it was super convenient, even though I was pretty loaded down. Savings was probably 60 yuan for the both of us when you figure tips.

Earlier I mentioned I had booked a tour of city lights for this evening. Well since the flight was late we were in the middle of Beijing rush hour traffic. Yeah it is as ugly as it sounds (more on Beijing traffic next time). So our guide was waiting in the lobby for us when we arrived. He was a nice guy, understanding and all, and waited for us to check in and off load in the room. Again, this was a tour booked through TravelChinaGuide.com. Our guides English name was Kevin, which was an auspicious start. Unfortunately that was the only thing good about the tour. Don't get me wrong, the guide was great. The tour itself was just not that good. We started out at Tiananmen Square. It was really pretty and still decked out for the 70th Anniversary of the government. Here we hit the first big snag. You are seated in the back of a car, and there is really no opportunity for stopping to get out and take pictures. So my iphone pics are a bit sketchy, sorry but it was the best I could do.

The two above are decorations from the anniversary celebrations.

Monument to the Peoples Heroes

 

Zhengyang Gate

Then we proceeded to the Performing Arts Center which is beautiful.

,.

Sadly the rest was mostly anti-climactic. The corner tower of the Forbidden city, as well as the Drum and Bell towers and the CCTV building were not lit that night. We did get a glimpse of the Bird Nest and Water Cube, but nothing to really photograph. The tour itself was $186 usd and really not worth it. Even if things had been lit up, being relegated to the back seat of the car kills it. Our guide Kevin was great, knowledgeable and friendly, sadly the tour did not live up to expectations. There was an option to sample the night life but since we were tired and Qiuyan doesn't drink (like all good Chinese women), I opted to pass and go back to the hotel. I forgot to mention our hotel earlier, the Howard Johnson Paragon Hotel Beijing. This is not your average Hojo's. Truly a 4 star hotel with great amenities and beautiful rooms. Here is the link, take a look! https://www.wyndhamhotels.com/hojo/beijing-china/howard-johnson-paragon-hotel-beijing/overview

Highly recommended, and as I mentioned earlier, directly across the street from the main Beijing train station. It is also adjacent to the subway, and within walking distance to Tiananmen Square,  Ming Wall Park, and several other attractions. That ended up being quite a bit so I'll stop there. The next post will feature the Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, Beijing Hutongs, and some Pandas...no not Kung Fu Panda either....

More From The Painting Table

It has been some time since I posted last. I have not gamed and in fact my painting has suffered as well. Its been a busy summer and we are preparing for our trip to China. Speaking of China I have painted some Chinese. First up are some heavy weapons for my Bolt Action/ Chain of Command Warlord Chinese.

These guys are all Copplestone Castings, from the Back of Beyond range. I really like the figures. Clean sculpting and kind of chunky. The mortar crew is my favorite. I love the guy sitting in the back eating. The machine gun goes together weird, but, I managed to make it look good. And, if one has a Warlord army you mush have a Warlord!

This guy is Copplestone as well. I really enjoyed painting him. While we are on the subject of Chinese, here are some Chinese undead/zombies!

These were really fun to paint. Took me some time to figure out what I wanted to do with them. Once I did they were a joy to paint. These are the old Black Hat range now sold by Scotia Grendel. They are part of the Tales of the Dragon Kings line. I had picked these up some time ago when Bad Squiddo was clearing them out.

Speaking of Bad Squiddo, here are some of the Onna Bugeisha in their range.

These are the original line not the last Kickstarter. I always have trouble with samurai to start. I don't want to do units, because they did not do that ( yes there are some rare exceptions). So I have to sit and stare at them for a while, as well as digging through books and internet images till my mind is stoked. Then off I go. These are nicely detailed and crisply cast. They are definitely fun to paint. Bad Squiddo makes a nice line of " Believable" female figures in a variety of periods. You should check them out. I do have the Kickstarter Onna Bugeisha in the painting queue somewhere (its rather long) so you can look forward to seeing them sometime.

 This next guy is from the Test of Honour Warring Clans range. He is Honda Yoshihito. 

I think I got him free as a promotion from Footsore Miniatures. If you are not familiar with Footsore Miniatures, they have a great Dark Age range. I have posted some Goths before. They also have the wonderful Warring Clans range for Japan, Gangs of Rome, Test of Honour, and the New Mortal Gods range and rules for hoplite warfare. Great stuff all around. I have Gangs of Rome, as well as Test of Honour, I just need to get around to playing them both. Definitely some good stuff there and well worth checking out.

Heading back to WW2 I have some 20mm US Paratroopers from FAA Miniatures. Here we have some weapon teams.

I am really liking 20mm for WW2 skirmish. I think the ground scale looks more realistic and the size means I can get a whole army in one box. FAA has some nice clean figures for the period and I like them a lot. Hopefully they stay around long enough to get more. The figures do match up well with Early War Miniatures and Dixon so fillers are not a problem.

Next up is my Lufwaffe Field Division squad. Typical Warlord Games fare. These I received in a Model Box last year. I enjoyed painting the camo. Once you figure out the method it goes pretty smooth.

I did them in the splittermuster style camo since they are Luftwaffe troops. I had to improvise on the machine gunner. The bipod was missing from the box and the MG barrel was breaking just past the magazines. So i stuck a rock under the weak spot and added extra super glue to keep it all in place.

Last but not least are some 15mm ACW repaints. I am repainting them because the painted minis I bought were not up to my standards upon getting them. ACW confederates are pretty simple so I just decided to redo them.

These are a mix of several manufacturers, Old Glory, Stone Mountain, and Minifig for the majority. I think they all mix well together, particularly since people are a variety of heights and widths. These guys are close enough in size to fit rather nicely together. They are based for Fire & Fury. I use the deeper bases allowed for in the original rule book. Since I have both sides it's no problem matching them up with the Union troops. I keep the flocking simple on these guys. That way it matches the bases I did some 30 years ago.

Well that is all for now. I'll be on vacation soon so the next post will probably cover that trip featuring the sights of Beijing and Manchuria. 

New Kingdom Egyptians In 15mm

These guys have been sitting around waiting to be finished (bases flocked) for a couple of years. I had finished painting them in them in late 2017, and they were based then put on hold while I relocated. I dug them out a few weeks ago and finally put the finishing touches on them in addition to repairing some damage when one of the boxes fell over during the move. Some time ago I had purchased a NKE army of TTG figures from either the TMP marketplace or eBay. I have a sort of love affair with these figures. In fact I like all the ranges. Even the giant head ACW and Napoleonic ones.  Most of my Feudal French army are TTG, and I have a fair amount of them in my Italian Wars collection. I also have a Ptolemaic army of theirs waiting to be painted. And, I decided to start a 15mm Napoleonic project covering Spain and the 100 days using the re-released Brickdust Napoleonics (TTG figures now sold by Alternative Armies in Britain)

These are the TTG archers. The army box came with, I think, a thousand WRG points of troops (Yes, they are that old). They are static than more modern sculpts but I think they had a ton of character for their time.

Some spearmen

and more spearmen. 

I was just starting out with washes when I did these. For decades, I was a block painter that then did black outline. Washes serve the same purpose and cut my painting time way down. The downside was I left an excess mount of wash on the shields. These aren't too bad but there are a few that are really dark. I have gotten much better with washes now, and I am happy with the results.

Some axemen,

And some light troops.

I love the chariots. Pharaoh's is really nice with a figure of Horus in between the two horses. They are a pain to assemble though. They come in 7 pieces, adding two more for the generals umbrella. So they were rather fragile till I got them based. They do look nice though. 

Now the TTG army is not really big enough to make the size of Impetus army that I wanted to create. And, while Alternative Armies has the Dark Age, Medieval, Renaissance, Napoleonic, and ACW ranges from TTG, they don't have the ancients (you can see AA ranges on their website here https://www.alternative-armies.com/ ) I did some searching and found the ancients lines were owned by a company in New Zealand. Since postage from there is terrible I opted to add on with Old Glory 15's https://oldglory15s.com/ (not to be confused with the other Old Glory Miniatures).

 I added in some chariots,

some bowmen,

and some Sherden.

I made separate units so they did not look odd together, though they are not that far apart in size. You can see the difference in the more modern figures. More poses in a package gives you a more dynamic looking base. I still love the old TTG figures though, and I look forward to painting more.

The National World War One Museum

Memorial Day weekend offered a rare opportunity to visit the National World War One Museum in Kansas City. They had discounted admission for veterans and their guests. I had been there a couple times last year for events but had not yet toured the museum. The building is built into the side of a hill so that the entrance is below the surrounding grade.

Since it was Memorial Day weekend the museum had a tribute to the 22 veterans a day that take their own lives. They installed a flag for each person representing a week. You can see the top of the entry doors at the lower center of the picture. There are two smaller exhibition halls on the roof/deck of the museum as well as Liberty Memorial Tower, an iconic symbol on the Kansas City skyline. 

We entered and paid our admission, they have a book store, and a café as well. It is a well thought out museum. The first thing you notice as you cross a glass bridge to the galleries is the poppy field below you. it is pretty good size and features poppies in a muddy debris strewn field. A touching tribute to those that lost their lives in the Great War.

The museum is well put together. I will apologize for some of the poor angles in the photography. It was quite crowded and they have a ton of stuff in there to view.  One thing I liked was the amount of weaponry. Particularly artillery. I was really cool seeing the guns, especially the iconic French 75.

They also had a nice collection of minenwerfer. 

There is a great selection of small arms. I did not get too many pictures of those, as they are pretty common, though I did get some shots of the automatic weapons, including my favorite, the Chauchat.

There was much to see in the main gallery including posters.

 As we came to the end of our tour there was a beautiful Harley Davidson

And my favorite item of the day, an FT-17

They have quite the collection of American uniforms, as well as a few others on display. The American uniforms were hung up in a climate controlled closet, it was really cool. Here are some shots of the other uniforms they have.

I loved the Stosstruppen uniform, as my TMP moniker would imply. They also had some vignettes you could view through holes, complete with sounds of the battle.

Here is some cool trench art on display.

After touring the main galleries we went to the two halls on the roof deck. The first one we went into had the story of what happened after the war, and the various organizations that developed.

The other hall had displays with sketches and some photos showing the devastation to some of the cities and towns during the war. This hall was built as a memorial to those in the area that lost their lives during the war. There are a number of beautiful murals along the upper wall.

There is also a list of Kansas City area residents that failed to return home.

The deck outside offers some wonderful views of downtown Kansas City.

Liberty Memorial Tower

And the beautiful approach to the museum itself

Sadly the fountain was out of order. A bit of trivia, Kansas City has a large number of water fountains all over the city. A quantity that rivals even Rome. There was supposed to be some static displays out front, however, with the downpour we had the night before that appeared to have quashed that. Overall though, it was a great visit, and I plan to revisit the museum during the week sometime to get a better view of things. I hope you enjoyed the tour and I hope you can all come out here someday and see this wonderful museum.