Ni Hao - Běijīng

Hello!

So finally FINALLY after 2 1/2 months of not writing - I'm baaaack. This summer was super busy and full of visitors. Plus - pretty much everything (minus China) is so normal to me now, it hardly seems interesting to write about. But, maybe everyone else is still interested. Although, now that its been so long I can't really remember most of the events of this summer - partially because we were in a beer and soju haze for most of it - and partially because it is SO HOT here in the summer that we were all in a haze anyway. So...I'm just going to talk about my trip to China with Courtney. I'll try not to make it too long

My sister arrived in Korea and I had about a week to show her around Seoul and introduce her to my friends before it was time to go to China. I think she was a little shocked by...probably everything here. I totally forget what it was like when I first arrived here. Everything was so bizarre. Now..its just the norm.

So we arrived into Beijing around 2 or 3 in the afternoon. After getting through immigration and baggage claim and struggling to find the Airport Railroad, we were finally on the train. Our hotel was near a subway stop so we assumed it would be easy to find. Naturally, we assumed wrong. We spent maybe 20 minutes trying to follow the directions and backtracking and looking incredibly lost. Finally, we decided to suck it up and ask for help. There was a little information stand on the corner with a sign in English reading : "Need help? Ask me, the volunteer!" I could tell just by looking at the man that there was no way he spoke English. And he obviously didn't. I managed to communicate where our hotel was to him, but he couldn't figure out how to tell me where it was exactly. He grabbed this nerdy and terrified looking college student who spoke a few words of English to explain to us. But really, he didn't even need to explain because the kid ended up walking us all the way to our hotel. That is definitely one of the perks of Asia - everyone is so friendly, they will go completely out of their way to help you. I'm pretty sure if that happened in America, most people would give up if the other person couldn't speak English.

Of course, the one English-speaking employee at our hotel was off that day and we had to struggle through check-in. Honestly, I don't mind if we don't speak the same language. But the girl behind the counter was obnoxious and kept laughing. I was annoyed. I'm used to not being able to communicate, its really not a big deal to me.

Once we were settled in our room, we hopped back on the subway and went to Tiananmen Square. It was such a nice day out and the square was really crowded. The square is heavily guarded...you have to go through security just to get into it, and there are uniformed as well as plain-clothes officers everywhere. If anyone were to break out in a "Free Tibet" shirt its safe to say they would be arrested immediately. The square is right across from the Forbidden City and out-of-town Chinese tourist crowd to take a picture with Mao. Tiananmen Square is the largest public square in the world. Height restrictions on the buildings means that on a clear day (like we were lucky enough to have) you can see the entire dome of the sky. It is so open, which is ironic given the symbol of the oppression of Communism it holds for so many people after the protest in 1989 when an estimated thousands were killed for openly protesting the government and supporting democracy.

Tiananmen Square/Forbidden City

It was here in Tiananmen Square than Courtney and I got our first little preview of what the next few days would be like. A Chinese girls came up to us and asked to take a picture with us. We thought it was a little strange, but some of my blonde friends who had visited China before told me stories of how the Chinese people wanted to touch their hair and take pictures with them. I assumed it only happened because of their hair color, but I guess its a general "white people" thing. Beijing is touristy, but its mostly Chinese tourists from small towns in China, where they have honestly never seen white people. From that point on, pretty much everywhere we went, we were asked to take pictures with people. By the end of the trip we were joking that we should have charged people, it probably would have paid for the trip!

After that we wandered down the road and discovered the area of Wangfujing. Its pretty much a tourist sanctuary because its definitely the cleanest and most modern part of the city that we saw. There are crowds and crowds of people, flashing lights, and the hope that someone will speak English. We found a crowded shabu-shabu place so we decided to go in there and try it. Luckily, they had an English menu, tho the staff didn't speak any English we were able to order exactly what we wanted.

Saturday, we went to the Forbidden City. Perhaps we would have gotten more out of it had we gotten the audio guide, or taken a guided tour, but those take hours and hours to go through because the Forbidden City is enormous. It is definitely a strong reminder of the great imperialist power China once had. There are large open halls and courtyards that once housed royal families, now filled with tourists.

Forbidden City entrance

Getting good luck!

After wandering around the never-ending imperial palace for several hours, we decided we had had enough. From there we hopped on the subway to the Hongqiao Pearl Market! The Pearl Market is definitely touristy, but you really can get a good deal on so many things. Its full of pushy and grabby salespeople though, so only go if you're in the mood to bargain and be harassed. "Hey lady, I like your face. You want chopstick? I give you chopstick. Good price. Special price just for you. You no want chopstick? I have panda bracelet. I give you panda bracelet, good price for pretty lady." Imagine all of that said as fast as an auctioneer but in broken English. Hilarious! Courtney and I walked out of there was a pretty good-size haul, and didn't really spend too much on it all either. Definitely worth the visit and I would definitely check out that place again.

From there we went back to Wangfujing to check out the famous "Snack Street". We were greeted by live scorpions and starfish on sticks. Um..freak out. We grabbed something that was veggie and looked safe to eat, before moving on to some dumplings. Definitely an interesting place. We found a table at a snack stand and grabbed some Tsingtao to go with our dumplings.

The next day we went to Yonghegong (Lama Temple) which is China's largest Buddhist temple. There were people worshipping and the smell of incense all around. We also saw a huge 18m buddha statue. Surprisingly...it wasn't the biggest buddha I've seen. I've seen a lot of temples though and this one was definitely memorable to me.

Lama Temple

From Lama Temple, we took the subway to the Temple of Heaven Park. Its a huge park in the heart of Beijing. Its surrounded by busy streets yet you can't hear the traffic. You can only hear the music of the dancers who frequent the park. Its sprawling park with trees and benches, dotted with ice cream stands and temples.

Temple of Heaven

By this point, we were exhausted, but we still had so much to see! We attempted to go to the CCTV building - one of the more modern architectural buildings in the city, but it was blocked off by construction so we couldn't get a clear view of it.

After that we went up to the Olympic Park to check out the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube. Its mostly empty now in the Olympic Park except for on the weekends and the peak tourist season (which we were right in the middle of). We were too late to go inside any of the buildings, so we made plans to go back on our last day.

Broadcast Tower

Water Cube

Monday was our much-anticipated Great Wall tour. Generally, when I travel I prefer to do things on my own. I don't mind the being lost and the not being able to communicate. For me, that's part of the fun and experience of being in a new place. However, even my friends who live in China had advised that I book an actual tour for the Great Wall, so I followed their instructions. The Great Wall is about an hour outside of the city (we went to the closest part of the wall - Badaling) but can be even further if you chose a less touristy option. We first stopped at the Ming Tombs, which were ok I guess, but nothing special. We stopped at a jade factory before driving over to get lunch. After lunch, we were set free to climb the Great Wall. Courtney and I stuck with the people from our small 6 person tour group. The group included the 2 of us, a girl from Korea, a boy from Germany, and 2 boys from Denmark. The wall was incredibly steep, but offered some amazing views. There really is nothing like standing on top of the Great Wall, imagining all of the history before that very moment, and all of the time there is to come, to put your life into perspective. Standing up there, I definitely had a moment of "I can't believe I'm here and this is my life". That moment looking out over the mountains and the seemingly never-ending Great Wall was one of my favorite travel moments...that's why I can't stop traveling. I love those moments :)

Our last day (Tuesday) we went back to the Olympic Park to go inside the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube. They're mainly tourist attractions now, but still interesting to see. I am SO inspired to go to the Olympics in a cool location now. The Water Cube is empty for the most part, but they have turned a section of it into an indoor waterpark. It was pretty cool to see, though, and imagine the excitement and roar of the crowd in those places. Remember when Michael Phelps won like 8 gold medals back in 2008? That was ridiculousss.

Inside the Bird's Nest

Inside the Water Cube

From the Olympic Park we went to the Beijing Zoo because I had been SO EXCITED to see a giant panda. It was pretty much all I could talk about the entire trip. So Courtney obliged in accompanying me to the zoo. We walked around the zoo for a bit, and made the pandas our last stop. They're so cute! I was going nuts. It was a hot day out, so before we had to get back on the hot, crowded subway, we stopped for some water and sat on a bench in the shade. All of a sudden this lady comes out of nowhere and sort of throws her baby at me and is babbling on in Chinese about how she wants to take a picture of me holding the child? I tried to be normal about it, but I was dyyyyyying laughing on the inside. Who does that? Then she wanted a pictures with me, the baby, AND her. Once they left, we were mobbed by about 7 more Chinese people wanting pictures. To get through all of them took about 20 minutes. They wanted group shots, individual shots, just me, just Courtney, and a million other combinations. Once they left, that was our cue to get out of there. We felt like a zoo attraction.

I really enjoyed my time in China, but its definitely different from Korea. Its more crowded, dirtier, and just not as developed in general. The subways are always packed and sometimes they aren't air conditioned. Going to China was so amazing, but it gave me a new appreciation for Korea, that's for sure!

So I feel really bad that I haven't written in forever. But now honestly, everything is just so normal to me. All the annoyances and frustrations and confusion that I had this time last year is gone. But this weekend I'm going to my co-teacher, Sang-Jin's, wedding. Its my first Korean wedding so I'm excited. I really do want to try to write more often, but I just get so stuck because I feel like I'm going to be writing about the same stuff over and over again.

There's a new Wisco group here though..so perhaps we will have some new adventures?

New K-pop song. Taeyang's "I'll Be There". Here is the Korean version as well as the English version! Enjoy!

"We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves. we travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate. We travel to bring what little we can, in our ignorance and knowledge, to those parts of the globe whose riches are different dispersed. And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again -- to slow time down and get taken in, and fall in love once more." -- Pico Iyer