We didn’t waste much time before getting to the important sights of Beijing. Right away we decided to hit up Tiananmen Square and the
Forbidden City, two of the most recognizable places in China. They were very
crowded (to be expected) and just like usual, I underestimated the size of
these places. It took us probably two hours just to walk through the Forbidden
City. The entire palace is gigantic, with huge courtyards and temples one after
another repeating ten times over.
Tienanmen Square
Later that night we wandered around our hostile’s
neighborhood, which was supposed to be one of the more happenin’ places in
Beijing. We ended up finding a really cool street with tons of restaurants,
bars and vendors (including an awesome Mexican place…first time I’ve seen ranch
sauce in China). We also discovered an indoor market that sold basically
everything someone could possibly want in China, so it’s safe to say we dropped
some serious Kuai there. I’m still
amazed at how real all of the knock-off products look. They seem like the real deal until you
realize you just bought a pair of Nike’s for $10…too good to be true. Simply bargaining
for anything is a ton of fun. It’s like playing a verbal chess game with a
Chinese woman each time. Usually the price they originally offer is about 4-5 times more than what I end up paying for the product. The
salesladies are really good here too; way more difficult and fun to bargain
with than any other place I’ve been to.
Beats by Dre all over the place
Friday morning we booked a day trip through our hostile to
go to a little place called the Great Wall of China. This was one of the things I was most looking forward to
doing during my summer here, and it didn’t disappoint. When we got there we
were initially pretty bummed that it was foggy, but it ended up making a pretty
cool scene for the day. One of the things I overlooked was the steepness of the
wall. There were very few flat parts, and it wasn’t uncommon for there to be two
foot high steps, making for a pretty steep slope. Some of us were able to make
it to both ends of our area in the time allotted, but I decided to relax at
first, and then run from one end to the other to check out the impassable part
of the wall. Because the Great
Wall is so long, they were only able to restore sections of it for tourism. Once you do get to the end, the Wall is
crumbling and overridden with vegetation.
After a very sweaty, hot day of climbing the wall, we had another treat
in store: a toboggan ride down the mountain. This self-controlled thrill ride
was practically as fun as any roller coaster I’ve ever been on. A bunch of us
went down in a pack together, and we flew down the hill at alarmingly fast
speeds and had the workers hollering at us the entire way down. Oh man, it was
a ton of fun.
The fog made a really cool effect for some of the pictures I was able to take
A never ending stair workout: the Great Wall of China.
I was able to snap a picture during the toboggan ride.
Some other highlights of the Beijing trip seeing Olympic
Park, which also almost felt like I had been there already after seeing it so
many times on TV. The water cube and the bird’s nest really are amazing
buildings to see in person. Sadly we weren’t able to get into either of them, but just
hanging outside of the places that Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps made history
in was really neat.
We also made a stop at the Beijing Zoo and got to check out some giant pandas. In case you didn't know already, China is panda obsessed. Everywhere you go you see pictures, t-shirts, hats, drinks, ads, phones, EVERYTHING with pandas on it. So the pandas were cool and all, but the real fun of the day came when my friend, Jack, and I were checking out some of the primates. One had just walked into a new room, so we were able to get up real close. I have recently decided that I want to make a movie of all of my experiences this summer, so I started taking footage of him. About 3 seconds in, the pretty sizable monkey stands up, and leaps with as much force as he can at the glass right in front of Jack's face and pounds on the glass while in the air. We were both so surprised by what just happened, that we didn't know what to do. I kept filming, and got footage of the monkey looking at me, then Jack, snarling at us and then walking away. It was insane. I've never interacted with an animal at a zoo like that, and I still can't believe I got it on video! Jack was legitimately shaking for the next few minutes because it caught him so off guard. Anyways, I'm going to try and figure out how to get that uploaded, and put it in my next post, because it's an awesome video.
What a cuddly fella.
I said they like pandas, didn't I?
I know I’m not actually famous, but when you’re a semi-blonde American and in China, you basically are. I’ve been asked countless times to take
pictures with families, children and even to hold a baby. Just yesterday there
was a school group walking through our international dorm that mobbed two of my
friends and I while we were passing by on our way to lunch. Immediately they
all start screaming “HELLO! HI!” and jump up and down when they get a response
from us. The girls immediately pulled
out their camera phones to get pictures of and with us throwing up peace signs.
Not only that, but Chinese people aren’t afraid to let us know that we are
different. Simply walking down the street will get me hundreds of stares and
intrigued looks. If I do something especially crazy to them, like jog without a
shirt on, I will get full blown halts and stares. I guess I have a better
understanding what it feels like to be a minor celebrity.
One of the many pictures I've taken with Chinese people.
So I realize that I've fallen a week behind on my blogs, and I'm sorry, but it's been insanely busy over here. Also, the heat in Hangzhou is starting to get a little crazy. It's been right around 100 degrees for probably a week and a half now. I'm going to try and fit in my next post about my trip to Guilin sometime this weekend. To give you a quick preview though, it is my new favorite place in China. The views were absolutely amazing, and scenery like nothing I'd ever seen before. Alright, well I gotta split and go play some basketball in 97 degree heat at 5:30PM. Gotta love it.
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