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...