Beijing Baby!

  Beijing, China
Monday, October 6, 2008

**I have tons of photos from this week but my internet is being crapy and will only let me upload 5 picts at a time so I can't do anymore right now- check back later to see the rest!  

September 29th through October 5th is a national holiday in China.  This holiday is similar to our 4th of July celebration except all of China is off work for a seven day holiday. I didn't need to teach for the week a few of my friends and I went to Beijing.  We took the 2-hour train at 6am Monday morning and headed off to the city.  Chinese people are not like Americans in the wee morning hours.  Instead of drinking a coffee and being quiet and considerate to others sleeping, the Chinese move around the train cabin, slurp noodles, yell into their phones, chase their children around and play annoying games on their cell phones that beep every ten seconds!  It is amazing how much these people move!  Needless to say I did not get any sleep on the train....  :)
 
The first thing we did was purchase our return tickets to make sure we'd be able to get home. I used hand gestures and the very limited Chinese i know to ask a teenager if we were in the right line to buy tickets for Shijiazhuang and she surprised me by answering in English (guess i shouldn't have been too surprised since Helen told me to always ask a young person for help since they usually know the most English).
 
We found where we could get on the bus we needed to take us close to our hostel and stampeded our way on along with about 100 other people- i don't think there's a legal limit as to how many people can be on a bus cuz if there was, we definitely would've been over it- an accident would've been terrible! The bus ride was about 50mins long- probably one of the longest 50 mins in my life!  People were pressed up against you on all sides, continually pushing back and forth fighting for seats and elbowing to get on and off the bus at each stop.  Also, people kept hitting my bags  (I took a big backpack and purse) so I had to guard them so no one would steal my stuff! 
 
Our hostel was really nice.  We stayed at the Sanlitun Youth Hostel and ended up paying 217RMB (about 33 American dollars) per person for the week.  There were five of us traveling in a group- three other Americans and one girl from Great Britain who we have become friends with- so we stayed in a 6-person room.  I was really surprised by how nice the hostel was- the bathroom, fully equipped with 3 showers and 2 western style toilets, was right next to our room.  There were three sets of bunk beds complete with a pillow and blanket and also a small cubby for all of our stuff.
 
After we got settled in our room we went to Beihai Park.  We walked around for a long time in the park; it was absolutely beautiful.  We saw many different flower gardens, plants, trees and people.  My favorite person to watch was a man who had a really long pain brush that he would dip in water and then effortlessly paint faces on the sidewalk. Once the pictures evaporated the man would walk right back to where he started and pain a new picture. 
 
Later that day we ended up booking a tour for the Great Wall at a different hostel called the Backpackers Hostel, cost us 260RMB (about $40).  We decided on this tour because transportation was provided as well as all of the tickets we needed for the various parts of the wall.  There are different parts to the wall where different numbers of people are.  Some parts of the Wall are very touristy while others original and empty.
 
The bus left for the Wall at 6am sharp on Tuesday so we all got up at 4:30am to leave our hostel at 5 to catch a bus and make it to the hostel by 6.  There were about 15 other people on the bus with us most of who were middle age but there were also 3 young adults like ourselves but from Spain who we ended up talking to and seeing later on the trip.  The bus to the Wall was a 3-hour ride where we saw people using the street as a table, using the street to separate seeds, using the street to sell items, sheep being herded and two accidents. Needless to say it was a pretty exciting journey.  At the Wall we were warned that we only had 4 hours to hike the 10k and also that we needn't buy any more tickets.  This information came in very handy later when a woman in one of the towers we were hiking through tried to make us pay another 50RMB to pass by her!  Luckily we didn't pay mainly because we argued with her for 5 mins and another group of tourists were behind us, so I think she wanted us our of her way so she could try and swindle them.  The Wall was so beautiful; my pictures do not do it justice.  It was a wonderful day- sunny, warm and clear so we could see all the mountains and lush greenery around us.  There were definite parts to the Wall, some where redone so the steps were really easy to go up and down while other parts were death traps.  The slope of the Wall was dangerous and the gravel rock you walked on was loose.  Some of the people were hanging on for dear life while they climbed up and down the Wall.   Contrary to what I thought, the wall is actually not flat.  You are continually climbing steps up or down and going through towers and dungeons.  Sometimes if you are really lucky you go down a dead end or are forced to trek through the countryside on a small dirt trail because the wall is in such bad shape that it is closed off.  I absolutely could not imagine building the Wall- carrying all the bricks and walking through the terrain- it just amazes me!
 
In almost all of the towers in the Wall, people were trying to sell stuff- water, coke, beer, books, fans, t-shirts, paintings- you name it, it was there.  I couldn't believe that people actually would walk up the wall to sell their crap!  About half way through we stopped for lunch, which we brought with us and then continued on the rest of our trek. Towards the end of the hike I saw a group of people with tons of gear.  It turns out that they were going to camp on the Wall overnight!  I wish I would have know that this was possible because the sunset and sunrise would have been so beautiful to see!
 
At the end of the hike there is a large suspension bridge with a gorgeous river below.   The river is so clear that even though the bridge was some 100 feet off the ground you could still easily see the rocks on the bottom of the river.  Instead of climbing down the mountain on foot we took a zip-line (cost an additional 40RMB but totally worth it!).  IT WAS AMAZING!  A Chinese woman who I could not understand put a harness on me and then clipped me into a large wire that ran down to a little hut.  She made me sit down and then pushed me off the side of the mountain.  You felt as if you were going to crash right into the river below!  At the little hut there was a nice calm boat that took you back across the river to the parking lot.  The Great Wall was so beautiful!  Once at the bottom of the Wall there were people everywhere selling crap and also many restaurants.  I wanted to run back up to the top of the Wall because all of the people ruined the majestic feeling of the place.  Everyone on the bus was so exhausted from our hike that we all immediately fell asleep until our near death experience where a car cut us off and the bus driver stomped so hard on the breaks that it woke everyone up!  Even though we almost died 7 times this day, from driving with crazy Chinese drivers and walking on stones that crumbled beneath you, I must say that the Wall was one of the coolest experiences I have had thus far in China.
 
Wednesday morning, October 1st, we went to Tiananmen Square to celebrate National Day.  We got to the square around 5:20am and were completely overwhelmed by all the people.  There were people selling Chinese flags, people selling breakfast, policemen, kids and adults.  It was really quite fun to look at all the people. There were groups of soldiers marching around the square that looked really intimidating.  Waiting for the sunrise was an experience in itself because of the number of people that came up to us and wanted to take a picture of/with us.  It is getting to be quite funny now because of the way that people try to sneak picts of us.  On the train to Beijing one of the guys sitting in the seat in front of us was trying to be all sneaky with his camera phone and take picts of us by pretending to stretch but we all saw and knew exactly what he was doing.  I don't know why these people don't simply ask or just take it and then walk away.   Anyway, at sunrise a Chinese flag was raised and hundreds of birds were let free.  The sky was filled with black speckles from all the birds.  On the way out of the square we saw a line of policemen and then soldiers behind them who were trying to control the amount of people coming into the square.   People tried to push past the policemen but never dared touch a soldier. After the ceremony, we went back to the hostel to finish sleeping and returned later in daylight to the square.  We saw Moa's picture on  his temple and wanted to cross the street to see other parts of the area but we could not figure where to cross at.  There was a fence that blocked off the street so after we walked up and down we finally figured it out that you had to cross under the street.  The underground crosswalks were so crowded! In order to cross the street, you had to go through security and have your bags x-rayed, it was quite the process!  We finally got to the other side of the street and met up with two more Drakers- Zack and Megan, who took us to a silk market.  We went here because Zack had bought a traditional silk jacket and it was being tailored for him- 900 RMB.  This store was very beautiful- silk everywhere!  His jacket was gorgeous- black with red dragons on it- I have no idea when he is going to wear it after he leaves China!
 
Our experience in the silk market- not the one previously mentioned- was uniquely Chinese!  This silk market was 6 levels where vendors had a small cubical of space that was so crowded with merchandise it was impossible to see everything.  Shoes, luggage, coats, pants, shirts, jewelry, scarves, purses, athletic gear- everything you could ever want to buy was in this building! The people who worked the stands would come over put their arms around you and say things like 'pretty shoes for the pretty lady'.  I was not prepared for the way they yelled at you while you walked by but after adjusting I had a wonderful time!  When we walked into the market we met an English speaking man who could tell it was our first time and told us to start bartering at 10% of what the sales person asked- thank goodness he told us that!!  I ended up buying a black windbreaker type jacket for 85RMB (started at 780RMB).  It was so much fun!  It was fun to barter with these people because they would insult you and you were expected to say stuff right back at them!  Alissa and Kara both bought Ugh boots for 160/120RMB- so Mariah let me know if you need some new Ughs!  I'm pretty sure all of the stuff in these booths were fake but whatever- when in China do as the Chinese do- rip off America!  After spending 4 hours here we were all famished so we went for MEXICAN! A taco never tasted so good!!
 
we took a long bus ride to the Olympic site. We thought we'd be able to walk around inside the gated area but apparently you needed tickets even to do that and we couldn't find a ticket booth of any kind and we didn't trust the people scalping tickets since there were signs everywhere saying it was illegal to buy from them. So we took pictures through the fence of the water cube and the birds nest.
        We headed back into the city and had a classy lunch at Hooter's and then walked around a really nice  mall that had a ton of american stores- steve madden, adidas, nike, apple, north face, coldstone, starbucks, etc. Although steve madden had a couple pairs of shoes i was really eyein- I had no intention of buying them since i'm stuck in china mode. Our friends Jake and Daniel from the Shiz got into Beijing that day and since they didn't have a place to stay we asked our hostel if they had 2 beds available and they were in luck- there were two beds left in 10 person mixed room so we got em on a bus coming our way.
        We hung out at the hostel for a while and then went to dinner at The Den- great happy hour deals. 1/2 off pizza and drinks from 5-10! We had a blast- playing drinking games for a few hours before hitting the bars- i think we might have scared jane a bit with how intense everyone was getting during "asshole." We found "shooters," a bar well known for their crazy shots and good music. Everyone was throwin em back and having a great time. We met a lot of other foreigners and danced the night away- helped that DJ was awesome and played a lot of our requests.
I should mention that while in Beijing we didn't eat one bite of Chinese food!  I have never felt better.  We ate pizza, burgers, burritos, tacos, sandwiches- we even found a subway and hooters and ate there!  Western food is all so very delicious and a great change from the Chinese food we eat everyday! 
 
One day at dinner we saw a sign for a Wal-Mart across the street. This immediately got us curious so we took a trek through the store!  It was very similar to the Wal-Marts back in the states except they had an imported foods section, a full liquor supply of normal alcohol (absolute, captain morgan, tequila, smirnoff, ect.) and only black hair dye.  Kara wanted to dye her hair blond because her roots were really bad so we though that she could find a box dye at Wal-Mart but they only carried black dye- so much for choices!!  
 
We visited the Forbidden City and learned all about the Ming Dynasty- the instruments they played, the ways they lived, the weapons they created for protection- all very interesting.  The best most entertaining part of the day however was trying to see the place where the Farrell use to sit.   There were so many people who know nothing about being polite or forming lines- so it was absolutely crazy getting into this place to take a picture or see what the room looked like.  I took a video of myself trying to get close to the room to show you the crazy crowd and how they pushed and shoved.  It felt like being at a rave except it was the    middle of the day and Chinese people surrounded me. My favorite part of the city was the imperial garden.  Here there were trees that twisted upon itself, gigantic white rocks, flowers and bushes everywhere.  It would have been very tranquil if it weren't for the throngs of people everywhere. 
 
We went out a few nights to see the nightlife and it is pretty much the same in the West- drinks are expensive and people get crazy!  One of my favorite things about China is that if you are at a restaurant or at a bar you are allowed to bring drinks in with you! It is actually quite comical because the restaurant can see you buying the drinks 10 seconds before walking in and being seated.  One of the smartest women I have observed in China sold beer outside a bar for 3RMB while the bar sold it for 30RMB- needless to say she made a killing because everyone went outside to drink and chill and then went back in to dance!  Most of the places we were at played English music even though everyone but maybe 4 of the people in these places were  Chinese.  I find it entertaining that the Chinese people play songs that were popular in the state 3 months ago but don't speak English.  Karaoke is also very popular in China. They have special bars to go to where you can rent out a room and sing karaoke for hours on end. We have done this in Shijizahuang and I don't understand why the Chinese think it is so much fun! 
 
The holiday really fun and I totally love Beijing!  I think Bejing would be really fun to live in because there are so many foreigners and it is not uncommon to find people speaking English!  This is the first time in China where I've felt as if I've almost blended in!  It was great!