BEIJING!!! - Pt.II

THURSDAY

At the advice of our new friends from Israel, we woke up and left the hostel early to head to The Temple of Heaven. The reason for arriving early in the morning is to watch many Chinese do Tai Chi and other exercises. We sat and watched many different styles of Tai Chi exercises. Groups had streamers, swords, whips, colored sticks, or nothing at all. There were individuals doing Tai Chi as well as groups of up to (approximately) 30 members.

After watching for a while we split up and walked around The Temple of Heaven. I found many men flying kites and playing instruments. While taking a picture of a man playing an ErHu (chinese violin) I saw a married couple (Lily and Yong) playing with a "kick toy". It reminded me of an American Hackey Sack. After taking a picture of them, they grabbed me and communicated that they wanted me to play with them. So I joined them!! We had a lot of fun! I enjoyed it so much that I bought one at the Silk Street later that evening.

Afterwards I walked around and finally entered the gates to the Temple of Heaven. It was much bigger than we expected. Similar to all the other places we visited in China it was not just one Temple. There were many. We stayed there until lunch time, for more than 4 hours. There were lines of people to enter the different Temple areas. For each "important" temple you need a different ticket.


After the Temple of Heaven we went to an Italian restaurant and had an assortment of food. I finally got a grilled chicken salad. My first salad since I have been in China. Most others had pizza! This was our chinese student, Melody's, first time eating pizza EVER!! It was very exciting for her. She loved it! Afterwards we went to Starbucks for dessert and then proceeded to a big bookstore. There (in the English section in the basement) I found a book of short stories written by a favorite author of mine, Paulo Coehlo.

For the remainder of the evening we went shopping at the Silk Market again. J-Bo (Jessica) and I went to Subway for dinner again and stopped at Basking Robbins for icecream on the way back to the hostel.


FRIDAY

Friday morning we got on a city bus that would take us to the Summer Palace. The ride took a little more than an hour. When we arrived there, finally, there were many vendors outside selling yams, fruit, fried "pita", and other various Chinese "fast food" items.

After purchasing the Summer Palace tickets we started our long journey through it. The Summer Palace was (I believe) the biggest place we went to in Beijing. I even got a little frustrated because of the size. It covers too much land with too many temples and other buildings to see in just one day, the only day we had remaining. We saw as much as we could, many gardens, a huge marble boat (the Emperor would use take on the lake to entertain), many palaces, the Buddha, and many temples. There was soo much to see. While walking around the gardens I found a place where they were playing instruments and having ballroom dancing. I of course took pictures and watched for a little!

On our way to get a bus back to the hostel we stopped at Souzha Street a market for souveniers, before leaving the Palace. We walked around the Street while the sun was setting! You know how much I love the sunsets!! It was a very peaceful and calming way to end our time at the Summer Palace. When we returned to Beijing J-Bo, Melody, and I went to Dairy Queen for a Blizzard and then proceeded to Super Walmart. Chinese Super Walmarts are very different than American Walmarts. In case you were wondering you can buy frozen eel and random animal parts in China at Super Walmart!


To end our last day in Beijing we went back to San Li Tun! We ate some "chips" as the British call french fries, and danced a little! To top it off we did the best thing ever for weary travellers, we...

SLEPT!!

SATURDAY


We left our hostel with all of our bags, those we brought and those we acquired. We headed to, where else but ... Starbucks!! Rusty, Melody, and I left our bags with J-Bo and Brittany and headed to Tiananmen Square for some pictures in the daylight! When we were finished we went back to the Train Station and waited amongst the others waiting to squeeze onto the train. On the return we could only get hard seats. Never again will we travel with hard seats, especially for a length of time more than 6 or 7 hours. It was crazy!!! There were so many people. You can buy a soft sleeper, hardsleeper, hard seat, or a standing ticket. In the seats you literally have to sit up straight or your legs hit the person across from you. We met many interesting people in our hard seats with many weird habits. There was a girl that ate sugarcane like a panda bear. She bit off a chunk, chewed it, and then just opened her mouth to let it fall out. Not spit it out, but fall out!! Then she spit sunflower seeds everywhere. Eeewww!! A few even got on my seat! Ick! We were very thankful to finally get back home!!

It is true:

There's no place like home!!
(even your Chinese home!!)


*Of course there are many more stories I could tell but they will be saved for my return when you ask the many questions you have!*
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Website: http://sarahinchina.snapfish.com/snapfish
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BEIJING!!!

Oh so much to tell about our trip to Beijing for the holiday!! I will split it into sections and have a few different posts.

We left ShiYan on Sunday by train at 5:30. It was Rusty and Brittany, Jessica Boffey (J-Bo), Melody (Brittany and my student), Laurence (a student from J Bo's school), and me!! JBo and I had hard sleepers while Rusty, Brittany, and Melody had soft sleepers. Soft sleepers = a private room with 4 beds and a door. Hard sleepers = 6 beds, open to all, but lights go off and people sleep after 10:30. Sleepers, hard or soft, are wonderful. Especially travelling for a long distance!!

These are some kids that were constantly running around and coming up to us to say random things and just laugh when we said "Nihao" (hello). They were cute!!

We arrived in Beijing Monday afternoon at about 2:30. From there we went to our hostel to drop our backpacks and head out to explore Beijing!!

After we freshened up for a few minutes we went downtown. We walked around Tiananmen Square. It was lit up with lights (by the time we found our way it was dark - our chinese student had not been to a big city before so we had to get her to translate for us so we could figure it out...) It was extremely crowded due to the holiday and massive amounts of people travelling, a tad overwhelming. While in Tiananmen Square we met 3 other young 20 somethings from Israel. We started to chat. Since JBo and I were craving starbucks and they knew where it was we all walked to Starbucks and continued our conversations! They, Maytal, Eyal, and Alon, are pretty amazing people. We all must have talked for hours, starbucks had to kick us out because they were closing.

TUESDAY

We were up very early, 5:30 to go to the Great Wall!! Our tour took us to the Great Wall where we spent over 2 hours climbing (literally) the wall. The stairs really do go straight up!! They also told us to be careful coming back down because of how steep and dangerous it can be when your legs are tired. Genious I am started to fall and did one of those falling sit-downs so I would not tumble down the rest of the way. The part of the wall we climbed, JuYongGuan Pass, was mostly stairs, some a foot high!!! Our legs and butts got a great workout that day!! I have a new theory about being in shape, you can't say you are in good shape unless you can climb the Great Wall without much difficulty!!

I told you the stairs were straight up!!!

This is the four of us on top of the wall!!
We Made It!!!

After the Great Wall we had a chinese lunch, visited the Jade Factory, the Ming Tombs (where the Emperors, Empresses, and concubines from the Ming Dynasty are buried), and the Silk Factory.

Upon returning to the Hostel we freshened up and met Eyal and Alon at SanLiTun, (a more Americanized strip), where we met for some food, drinks, dancing, and fun! We met many other foreign people. It is the place where foreigners in China go to talk and "get away"! It was good to talk to people and not have to explain everything you say or talk sloooowly!!

WEDNESDAY

We went to the Forbidden City. In the center of Beijing where many of the Emperors lived. The place is huge. Every time we passed through one part of the garden we reached an area that had three or more places to choose from. It seemed as though every palace led to yet another one or temple. It is remarkable to think that the Emperors took all that space in the middle of the city for themselves, thinking in America there is no way they would get away with that!!

When we finished at the Forbidden City (many hours later!), we went to Silk Street. Silk Street, is bargain shopping central. From the outside it looks like a huge mall. On the inside there are 7 floors all with many little stands (like pagodas in American shopping malls) in rows with about 6 rows on each floor. You find something you like and you bargain it down until you get it for about 10% of their starting price!! It was quite a learning experience!!

The following are pictures of a worker in at Silk Street playing with a "kick toy" (like a hackey sack) I bought and the outside of our hostel where Rusty and Brittany left their mark in the cement!

COMING SOON:

THE REST OF THE WEEK IN BEIJING!!! -

STAY TUNED...