Day 1: Arrival
We arrived in the afternoon and were surprised by how clean, modern, and organized the airport was. We grabbed a cab and were given a pamphlet explaining the taxi rules and fees for China. Very helpful. 15 minutes later we checked into the SAS Radisson and rested in our nice (albeit ugly) hotel room.
We soon left our hotel in search of food. We found a McDonald’s about a block away from the hotel and ordered two “NBA” meals. The bill came to about $5 for two big burgers, big fries, and big cokes (none of which we could finish.) I was definitely starting to like China! The meal also came with two tubes of toothpaste and two “finger sweatbands” which said “Los Angeles Lakers.” We kept the toothpaste and left the finger accessories on the table for someone else to enjoy.
On the way back to our hotel we discovered a huge Carrefour, where we filled our basket with several bottles of water, crackers, and even some coke and ice tea. I think the grocery bill was about $2 total!
After resting, showering, and watching a bit of BBC World (which I for some reason become addicted to whenever we stay at a hotel,) we made plans to meet our friend J, who lives in Beijing. He took us to a “hot-pot” restaurant where you cook raw meat and vegetables in hot oil on the table in front of you. We tried some interesting things…I’ll spare you the details. The best part about the restaurant was the people working there. As soon as you put something on the back of your chair (coat, purse, etc.) they ran over and put a “chair cover” over it. It was funny to watch. One of J’s friend’s put her coat on the chair, which was promptly covered. Next she took off her purse and hung it over her (already covered) chair. The staff didn’t hesitate before putting yet another “chair cover” over her purse. Maybe you had to be there, but it was funny.
My first impressions of Beijing: It’s huge, much bigger than I expected. There are people, cars, bikes, rickshaws, etc. EVERYWHERE! There are also huge skyscrapers everywhere you go, and there are more being built everywhere you look.
Day 2: Exploration
We woke up early and enjoyed a full, Swedish style, breakfast buffet. Next we grabbed a cab and headed over to J’s apartment. Finding a cab proved to be very easy in Beijing, especially from the hotel. You just tell the doorman where you want to go, and he hails a cab for you and gives directions to the driver in Chinese. Before you know it you are flying through the crowded streets of Beijing, clutching the “Oh-shit! handle” (because many cabs don’t have seatbelts,) and praying for your life as the driver swerves in and out of lanes at full speed, just missing a few bikes and rickshaws along the way. By the way, the cabs are cheaper (and faster) than taking the city bus in Gothenburg.
After meeting up with J and his friends M and S (visiting from Seattle,) we hailed a couple of cabs and headed to the “Hutongs.” The “Hutongs” are an ancient part of the city, with old housing and no pluming. It was definitely different than the hustle and bustle that makes up the rest of the city! We wandered around the alleys and the huge park for a while, before stopping for lunch. After lunch we climbed up the “Drum Tower,” where we were lucky enough to see the drums beaten on the hour. We also had a great view of the city from atop the tower.
Next we headed over to a market near J’s apartment, where I bargained for a cute pair of “puma” shoes, and a present for E’s birthday. We finished the day with dinner at a nicer restaurant (this time we paid about $5 each for our meal, including full pints of draft beer.)
Day 3: The Wall
We got up early and headed over to J’s where we met the others. J had rented a mini-van and driver for the day who drove us out to the wall (it took about 1½ hours.) The scenery changed dramatically as we left the city and headed for the mountains. As we neared the wall we drove on small, windy roads. The driver was nice, (although a crazy driver!) and he gave us a little bit of info about the wall upon arrival. According to our driver, one person died per meter of the wall during its construction. The wall is roughly 6,000 km long. (For those not prone to the metric system, that would be 6,000,000 people.)
We took a ski lift up to the wall and hiked for about 2 hours. I didn’t realize that walking on the wall would be so much work! There are a lot of stairs and some parts are extremely steep. We hiked about as far as tourists were allowed to hike (and a little more,) and then headed back to where we started. It really was amazing to walk on something that had so much history behind it!
I have been to a lot of tourist places, but this is one was especially interesting because the majority of tourists were Chinese. Apparently a lot of Chinese people had vacation while we were there, and many of the tourists were from other places in the country. In fact, at one point a young man (perhaps 20yrs old or so) came running after P. He must have chased us for a while before he caught up with us. He came up to P, and completely out of breath, and smiling, held up his camera. He wanted to have his picture taken with us! According to J, this young man had probably never seen a white person in his whole life. That really makes you think about how big the world really is, and that we westerners are only a small part of it.
After a couple of hours on the wall we took a “toboggan” back down to the bottom. There was a long slide (about 400 meters long,), which zigzagged its way down the hill. We were given a “toboggan” (basically a plastic seat with wheels and a hand break), which we used to slide down the mountain side (on the slide/track.) This was definitely not what I expected to find at the Great Wall!
When we arrived back at the hotel we received a message from the front desk explaining that we needed to switch rooms due to a maintanance problem. We complained a little and were able to get an upgrade to the 11th floor. The room was the same size, but the bed was huge and the furniture was much nicer than the furniture in our first room.
Day 4: The Forbidden City
P and I got up early on Thursday and headed to The Forbidden City. Basically The Forbidden City is old Beijing. It’s about 1km squared and is protected by a huge wall (20 feet tall maybe?) According to my travel book, The Forbidden City was where the emperor, along with many others including all of his concubines, lived. I’m sure that there is a lot of history behind the city, but to be honest, I’m really no expert. We did, however, buy “The Last Emperor” on DVD, which will hopefully provide me with some better insight. (That is since Hollywood is so good at portraying the truth and movies are 100% factual.) Anyway, we spent the morning wandering through the city, checking out the old Chinese architecture, the gardens, the alleyways, and of course, the Starbucks. (I’m not kidding; there is a Starbucks inside the Forbidden City!)
After we had felt like we’d seen the city, we decided it was time for lunch. We started walking in the direction of what was supposed to be a shopping district (according to the mini-map in my guidebook.) As we neared a big shopping street, we were stopped by a cheerful young Chinese man who said, “Hello, Welcome to Beijing!” Since we had met very few people who spoke English (especially so clearly,) we turned and said hello back. We started to continue on our way, but the pleasant man continued talking and explained that he was a student and studied English. His “English” name (in school) was Kevin.
Kevin: “Where are you from?”
P: “Where do you think we are from?”
Kevin looked straight at P and said, “Sweden?”
P: “What?! How did you know that?”
Kevin: “I studied in Uppsala, Sweden last summer. Hur mår du?”
P: ”Wow. Yeah, we know Uppsala. Where do you think she is from then?”
Kevin looked at me. “America?”
Stephanie: “How could you know that?!”
Kevin: “I guess I could hear it in your accent.” (I had hardly said a word.)
Kevin seemed friendly and harmless, so I asked him if he knew a good place to eat nearby.
Kevin: “Sure, follow me.”
We walked for about 2 minutes.
Stephanie: “So, what do you study?”
Kevin: “Art. Actually, my school is right here. I can show you some of my work.”
Before we knew it we were inside a nearby building, meeting Kevin’s Professor and looking at his artwork. Of course we ended up buying some. We hadn’t really planned on buying any artwork, but it wasn’t too expensive and I do like it. We bought a series of 4 paintings, Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter, painted on rice paper and mounted on silk. Very Chinese.
After buying the art Kevin brought us to a Chinese restaurant across the street and helped us order. The food was good, the portions were big, and the bill came to about $4.00.
After lunch we met J and his friends at the Silk Market, where we found great bargains on pearls (china exports 95% of world’s fresh water pearls,) ties, and knock-off designer clothes.
Day 5: The Heavenly Temple and Bar Street
We met up with J and his group and headed over to The Heavenly Temple. This is where the emperor used to come to pray for a good harvest. [Apparently bad weather (or a bad harvest) was reason enough for the rest of the country to overthrow the emperor and promote someone else.] The temple is still used today by Buddhist monks. The temple was interesting enough, but there is still one thing that I just don’t “get.” Around one temple (I think it was the temple of treasure) was a wall. While I was looking at the archutecture, the Chinese people kept going up to the wall, facing it, and screaming at it! I’m not sure what that was about.…
After visiting the temple we decided to head over to the Pearl Market, but decided to stop for lunch along the way. The best we could find was a KFC (This was the first time in my life I ate at KFC, I’ve always avoided it before.) Anyway, after enjoying my chicken sandwich I decided that KFC might be a safe place to use the bathroom. I headed off to the ladies room in hopes of finding a western toilet (in other words, a sit-down toilet.) To my dismay, there were only Asian style toilets, but I really had to go, so I decided to go for it. To quote my guidebook, “Westerns sit, Asians squat.” That is to say, an Asian toilet is basically a drain in the ground that you pee over. Some are a little nicer (like the one at KFC) and are flushable.
I’m afraid I still don’t get how you are supposed to use these toilets. There are no handles in the walls, the floors are disgusting (so you can put your hands down for balance,) and if you don’t do everything just right then you might miss the drain, if you catch my drift. I did manage to use the facility and stay clean, but all I’m saying is that it wasn’t easy. I guess the people who use those toilets have very strong thigh muscles. Moving on…
Later that night we met up with J and S again to experience some Beijing nightlife. We headed over to “Bar Street,” which was just that. We ladies had a great time out on the dance floor, while P and J stood by the bar and hung out. The drinks were cheap. The shots only cost about 80 cents and the bar boasted a large menu. The shots had pretty weird names though. Actually some of the names were really gross and I won’t repeat them here. I drank a delicious shot which was made up of baileys, kalooha and vodka, but unfortunately it was named after a practice that is against my religion…Anyway, we had a great time. “Kudos” to S who found an excellent ladies room in a nearby bar. It even had disposible toilet seat covers.
Day 6: The Dirt Market
We got a bit of a late start on Saturday, since we were out relatively late on Friday night. Also, P wasn’t feeling to well. He had already felt a little sick on Friday, so going out probably didn’t help matters. But he was a good sport. Anyhow, after sleeping-in a little we met up with J, M, and S and headed over to the “Dirt Market.”
The Dirt Market is an outdoor market, and is only open on Saturdays. It was very different from the indoor Pearl and Silk markets which mostly sell jewelry, electronics, and “designer” clothes. The Dirt Market was more of a cultural experience. The vendors were people who came from the country and sold hand made goods, antiques, jewelry, and art. It was fun. I liked some of the artwork, although my favorite pieces were far too big to bring home. J however, decided to buy an early wedding gift for P and me, and let us choose a painting. We chose a smaller version of one of the bigger paintings that I had really liked. It’s very cheerful and colorful. It’s a little bit abstract, but is of a field and sky. I know just where to hang it too.
I wandered around the market a bit, and found a little something that I wanted to buy three of (presents for someone so I won’t say what it was.) Anyway, I looked at the different designs and finally decided on three. I asked the Chinese woman if she would give me a better price if I bought three. She gave me a lower price and I agreed to it. I paid, and as I started to leave she stopped me. She bent down and picked up a fourth “thing” that she had seen me look at. She handed it to me and smiled. It was a gift.
Later, after lunch, P decided that he should head back to the hotel and rest. I went with the others and did a little more shopping. When I got back to the hotel P wasn’t doing too well, so I went to the Carrefour to see if I could find something for dinner. (Keep in mind that we had nothing more than a hot water boiler to cook with.) I ended up buying some Chinese Cup o Soup. :) It turned out to be just the right thing for P’s stomach, and the price was right and about 40 cents per cup. Now that’s cheap eat'n!
Day 7: Tiananmen Square
This was our last full day in Beijing, and I was not about to leave without visiting Tianamen Square! We went relatively early as to avoid the afternoon heat. What is there to say? It’s one big square. We walked from one end to the other, and took some pictures of Mau’s portrait. It was fun and relaxing, I’m glad we had a chance to see it.
Side note: Before continuing on our way, we stopped at a kiosk to buy some ice cream. The kiosk was small, with a couple of freezers for the ice cream, and a fridge with cold drinks. There were about seven people working there. It was like this everywhere we went! There are so many people working at every place you go to! : End side note.
We checked our guidebook and saw that the big western style shopping mall was close by, so we decided to walk there. Everything always looks much closer on the map! We had a nice walk though, and took in the city scenery. Once we found the shopping mall (huge!) we decided to eat lunch at a Chinese fast food place. No one spoke English, but we managed to order by pointing at the menu. At some point P pulled out a plastic fork to eat his noodles with, and everyone was giggling at us. We were laughing too though, it was fun.
Next we met up with J and company in the “hip” art district. The art district is located in a much quieter area of Beijing, were old factories have been turned into art galleries. There were a bunch of cafes too. The buildings all looked old and run down, but the place had a sort of “hip” vibe to it, and well-dressed people were wandering around with expensive coffees.
After exploring some of the art galleries, we had our last dinner in China. It was very yummy. Definitely the best green beans I have ever had, and whoever came up with the idea of dipping bananas in caramelized sugar deserves a medal!
Before turning in for the evening J took us to a few DVD stores. I think we ended up buying about 25 DVDs! Cheap! Cheap! Cheap!
Day 8: Farewell
Our flight wasn’t leaving until the afternoon, so after breakfast we headed over to Carrefour where we spent the last of our money on a steamer, a juicer, and some Chinese liquor.
We packed up, headed back to the airport, and hade a safe and uneventful flight home.
Final Thoughts:
We had a fantastic trip! Beijing was much bigger and more developed than I had expected. The people were very friendly too! I would definitely go back and would highly recommend a Beijing visit to others. Actually, I feel like I’ve got the “Asian bug.” I want to go back! I’m definitely looking forward to our upcoming honeymoon in Thailand!
We arrived in the afternoon and were surprised by how clean, modern, and organized the airport was. We grabbed a cab and were given a pamphlet explaining the taxi rules and fees for China. Very helpful. 15 minutes later we checked into the SAS Radisson and rested in our nice (albeit ugly) hotel room.
We soon left our hotel in search of food. We found a McDonald’s about a block away from the hotel and ordered two “NBA” meals. The bill came to about $5 for two big burgers, big fries, and big cokes (none of which we could finish.) I was definitely starting to like China! The meal also came with two tubes of toothpaste and two “finger sweatbands” which said “Los Angeles Lakers.” We kept the toothpaste and left the finger accessories on the table for someone else to enjoy.
On the way back to our hotel we discovered a huge Carrefour, where we filled our basket with several bottles of water, crackers, and even some coke and ice tea. I think the grocery bill was about $2 total!
After resting, showering, and watching a bit of BBC World (which I for some reason become addicted to whenever we stay at a hotel,) we made plans to meet our friend J, who lives in Beijing. He took us to a “hot-pot” restaurant where you cook raw meat and vegetables in hot oil on the table in front of you. We tried some interesting things…I’ll spare you the details. The best part about the restaurant was the people working there. As soon as you put something on the back of your chair (coat, purse, etc.) they ran over and put a “chair cover” over it. It was funny to watch. One of J’s friend’s put her coat on the chair, which was promptly covered. Next she took off her purse and hung it over her (already covered) chair. The staff didn’t hesitate before putting yet another “chair cover” over her purse. Maybe you had to be there, but it was funny.
My first impressions of Beijing: It’s huge, much bigger than I expected. There are people, cars, bikes, rickshaws, etc. EVERYWHERE! There are also huge skyscrapers everywhere you go, and there are more being built everywhere you look.
Day 2: Exploration
We woke up early and enjoyed a full, Swedish style, breakfast buffet. Next we grabbed a cab and headed over to J’s apartment. Finding a cab proved to be very easy in Beijing, especially from the hotel. You just tell the doorman where you want to go, and he hails a cab for you and gives directions to the driver in Chinese. Before you know it you are flying through the crowded streets of Beijing, clutching the “Oh-shit! handle” (because many cabs don’t have seatbelts,) and praying for your life as the driver swerves in and out of lanes at full speed, just missing a few bikes and rickshaws along the way. By the way, the cabs are cheaper (and faster) than taking the city bus in Gothenburg.
After meeting up with J and his friends M and S (visiting from Seattle,) we hailed a couple of cabs and headed to the “Hutongs.” The “Hutongs” are an ancient part of the city, with old housing and no pluming. It was definitely different than the hustle and bustle that makes up the rest of the city! We wandered around the alleys and the huge park for a while, before stopping for lunch. After lunch we climbed up the “Drum Tower,” where we were lucky enough to see the drums beaten on the hour. We also had a great view of the city from atop the tower.
Next we headed over to a market near J’s apartment, where I bargained for a cute pair of “puma” shoes, and a present for E’s birthday. We finished the day with dinner at a nicer restaurant (this time we paid about $5 each for our meal, including full pints of draft beer.)
Day 3: The Wall
We got up early and headed over to J’s where we met the others. J had rented a mini-van and driver for the day who drove us out to the wall (it took about 1½ hours.) The scenery changed dramatically as we left the city and headed for the mountains. As we neared the wall we drove on small, windy roads. The driver was nice, (although a crazy driver!) and he gave us a little bit of info about the wall upon arrival. According to our driver, one person died per meter of the wall during its construction. The wall is roughly 6,000 km long. (For those not prone to the metric system, that would be 6,000,000 people.)
We took a ski lift up to the wall and hiked for about 2 hours. I didn’t realize that walking on the wall would be so much work! There are a lot of stairs and some parts are extremely steep. We hiked about as far as tourists were allowed to hike (and a little more,) and then headed back to where we started. It really was amazing to walk on something that had so much history behind it!
I have been to a lot of tourist places, but this is one was especially interesting because the majority of tourists were Chinese. Apparently a lot of Chinese people had vacation while we were there, and many of the tourists were from other places in the country. In fact, at one point a young man (perhaps 20yrs old or so) came running after P. He must have chased us for a while before he caught up with us. He came up to P, and completely out of breath, and smiling, held up his camera. He wanted to have his picture taken with us! According to J, this young man had probably never seen a white person in his whole life. That really makes you think about how big the world really is, and that we westerners are only a small part of it.
After a couple of hours on the wall we took a “toboggan” back down to the bottom. There was a long slide (about 400 meters long,), which zigzagged its way down the hill. We were given a “toboggan” (basically a plastic seat with wheels and a hand break), which we used to slide down the mountain side (on the slide/track.) This was definitely not what I expected to find at the Great Wall!
When we arrived back at the hotel we received a message from the front desk explaining that we needed to switch rooms due to a maintanance problem. We complained a little and were able to get an upgrade to the 11th floor. The room was the same size, but the bed was huge and the furniture was much nicer than the furniture in our first room.
Day 4: The Forbidden City
P and I got up early on Thursday and headed to The Forbidden City. Basically The Forbidden City is old Beijing. It’s about 1km squared and is protected by a huge wall (20 feet tall maybe?) According to my travel book, The Forbidden City was where the emperor, along with many others including all of his concubines, lived. I’m sure that there is a lot of history behind the city, but to be honest, I’m really no expert. We did, however, buy “The Last Emperor” on DVD, which will hopefully provide me with some better insight. (That is since Hollywood is so good at portraying the truth and movies are 100% factual.) Anyway, we spent the morning wandering through the city, checking out the old Chinese architecture, the gardens, the alleyways, and of course, the Starbucks. (I’m not kidding; there is a Starbucks inside the Forbidden City!)
After we had felt like we’d seen the city, we decided it was time for lunch. We started walking in the direction of what was supposed to be a shopping district (according to the mini-map in my guidebook.) As we neared a big shopping street, we were stopped by a cheerful young Chinese man who said, “Hello, Welcome to Beijing!” Since we had met very few people who spoke English (especially so clearly,) we turned and said hello back. We started to continue on our way, but the pleasant man continued talking and explained that he was a student and studied English. His “English” name (in school) was Kevin.
Kevin: “Where are you from?”
P: “Where do you think we are from?”
Kevin looked straight at P and said, “Sweden?”
P: “What?! How did you know that?”
Kevin: “I studied in Uppsala, Sweden last summer. Hur mår du?”
P: ”Wow. Yeah, we know Uppsala. Where do you think she is from then?”
Kevin looked at me. “America?”
Stephanie: “How could you know that?!”
Kevin: “I guess I could hear it in your accent.” (I had hardly said a word.)
Kevin seemed friendly and harmless, so I asked him if he knew a good place to eat nearby.
Kevin: “Sure, follow me.”
We walked for about 2 minutes.
Stephanie: “So, what do you study?”
Kevin: “Art. Actually, my school is right here. I can show you some of my work.”
Before we knew it we were inside a nearby building, meeting Kevin’s Professor and looking at his artwork. Of course we ended up buying some. We hadn’t really planned on buying any artwork, but it wasn’t too expensive and I do like it. We bought a series of 4 paintings, Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter, painted on rice paper and mounted on silk. Very Chinese.
After buying the art Kevin brought us to a Chinese restaurant across the street and helped us order. The food was good, the portions were big, and the bill came to about $4.00.
After lunch we met J and his friends at the Silk Market, where we found great bargains on pearls (china exports 95% of world’s fresh water pearls,) ties, and knock-off designer clothes.
Day 5: The Heavenly Temple and Bar Street
We met up with J and his group and headed over to The Heavenly Temple. This is where the emperor used to come to pray for a good harvest. [Apparently bad weather (or a bad harvest) was reason enough for the rest of the country to overthrow the emperor and promote someone else.] The temple is still used today by Buddhist monks. The temple was interesting enough, but there is still one thing that I just don’t “get.” Around one temple (I think it was the temple of treasure) was a wall. While I was looking at the archutecture, the Chinese people kept going up to the wall, facing it, and screaming at it! I’m not sure what that was about.…
After visiting the temple we decided to head over to the Pearl Market, but decided to stop for lunch along the way. The best we could find was a KFC (This was the first time in my life I ate at KFC, I’ve always avoided it before.) Anyway, after enjoying my chicken sandwich I decided that KFC might be a safe place to use the bathroom. I headed off to the ladies room in hopes of finding a western toilet (in other words, a sit-down toilet.) To my dismay, there were only Asian style toilets, but I really had to go, so I decided to go for it. To quote my guidebook, “Westerns sit, Asians squat.” That is to say, an Asian toilet is basically a drain in the ground that you pee over. Some are a little nicer (like the one at KFC) and are flushable.
I’m afraid I still don’t get how you are supposed to use these toilets. There are no handles in the walls, the floors are disgusting (so you can put your hands down for balance,) and if you don’t do everything just right then you might miss the drain, if you catch my drift. I did manage to use the facility and stay clean, but all I’m saying is that it wasn’t easy. I guess the people who use those toilets have very strong thigh muscles. Moving on…
Later that night we met up with J and S again to experience some Beijing nightlife. We headed over to “Bar Street,” which was just that. We ladies had a great time out on the dance floor, while P and J stood by the bar and hung out. The drinks were cheap. The shots only cost about 80 cents and the bar boasted a large menu. The shots had pretty weird names though. Actually some of the names were really gross and I won’t repeat them here. I drank a delicious shot which was made up of baileys, kalooha and vodka, but unfortunately it was named after a practice that is against my religion…Anyway, we had a great time. “Kudos” to S who found an excellent ladies room in a nearby bar. It even had disposible toilet seat covers.
Day 6: The Dirt Market
We got a bit of a late start on Saturday, since we were out relatively late on Friday night. Also, P wasn’t feeling to well. He had already felt a little sick on Friday, so going out probably didn’t help matters. But he was a good sport. Anyhow, after sleeping-in a little we met up with J, M, and S and headed over to the “Dirt Market.”
The Dirt Market is an outdoor market, and is only open on Saturdays. It was very different from the indoor Pearl and Silk markets which mostly sell jewelry, electronics, and “designer” clothes. The Dirt Market was more of a cultural experience. The vendors were people who came from the country and sold hand made goods, antiques, jewelry, and art. It was fun. I liked some of the artwork, although my favorite pieces were far too big to bring home. J however, decided to buy an early wedding gift for P and me, and let us choose a painting. We chose a smaller version of one of the bigger paintings that I had really liked. It’s very cheerful and colorful. It’s a little bit abstract, but is of a field and sky. I know just where to hang it too.
I wandered around the market a bit, and found a little something that I wanted to buy three of (presents for someone so I won’t say what it was.) Anyway, I looked at the different designs and finally decided on three. I asked the Chinese woman if she would give me a better price if I bought three. She gave me a lower price and I agreed to it. I paid, and as I started to leave she stopped me. She bent down and picked up a fourth “thing” that she had seen me look at. She handed it to me and smiled. It was a gift.
Later, after lunch, P decided that he should head back to the hotel and rest. I went with the others and did a little more shopping. When I got back to the hotel P wasn’t doing too well, so I went to the Carrefour to see if I could find something for dinner. (Keep in mind that we had nothing more than a hot water boiler to cook with.) I ended up buying some Chinese Cup o Soup. :) It turned out to be just the right thing for P’s stomach, and the price was right and about 40 cents per cup. Now that’s cheap eat'n!
Day 7: Tiananmen Square
This was our last full day in Beijing, and I was not about to leave without visiting Tianamen Square! We went relatively early as to avoid the afternoon heat. What is there to say? It’s one big square. We walked from one end to the other, and took some pictures of Mau’s portrait. It was fun and relaxing, I’m glad we had a chance to see it.
Side note: Before continuing on our way, we stopped at a kiosk to buy some ice cream. The kiosk was small, with a couple of freezers for the ice cream, and a fridge with cold drinks. There were about seven people working there. It was like this everywhere we went! There are so many people working at every place you go to! : End side note.
We checked our guidebook and saw that the big western style shopping mall was close by, so we decided to walk there. Everything always looks much closer on the map! We had a nice walk though, and took in the city scenery. Once we found the shopping mall (huge!) we decided to eat lunch at a Chinese fast food place. No one spoke English, but we managed to order by pointing at the menu. At some point P pulled out a plastic fork to eat his noodles with, and everyone was giggling at us. We were laughing too though, it was fun.
Next we met up with J and company in the “hip” art district. The art district is located in a much quieter area of Beijing, were old factories have been turned into art galleries. There were a bunch of cafes too. The buildings all looked old and run down, but the place had a sort of “hip” vibe to it, and well-dressed people were wandering around with expensive coffees.
After exploring some of the art galleries, we had our last dinner in China. It was very yummy. Definitely the best green beans I have ever had, and whoever came up with the idea of dipping bananas in caramelized sugar deserves a medal!
Before turning in for the evening J took us to a few DVD stores. I think we ended up buying about 25 DVDs! Cheap! Cheap! Cheap!
Day 8: Farewell
Our flight wasn’t leaving until the afternoon, so after breakfast we headed over to Carrefour where we spent the last of our money on a steamer, a juicer, and some Chinese liquor.
We packed up, headed back to the airport, and hade a safe and uneventful flight home.
Final Thoughts:
We had a fantastic trip! Beijing was much bigger and more developed than I had expected. The people were very friendly too! I would definitely go back and would highly recommend a Beijing visit to others. Actually, I feel like I’ve got the “Asian bug.” I want to go back! I’m definitely looking forward to our upcoming honeymoon in Thailand!
