Beijing - In FULL detail

WARNING: Picture and story overload! 

The great thing about being here with ILP (the organization we volunteered for) is that we are required to have a 4 day weekend once a month, Joe and I have every Friday off due to the classes we teach during the week, and we also get about 10 days off in the beginning of April ALL for exploring the country! Last weekend was our first 4 day weekend and we had to take advantage. There is a lot we want to see and do here in China and this country is HUGE so no time to waste! We decided to head to Beijing. It was pretty awesome. We finished up our Thursday classes and our whole group (there are 17 of us) boarded a train bound for Beijing. It was a 10 hour ride that left at 9:30 at night. It was perfect leaving at that time because it meant we could pretty much sleep the whole ride there and catch some z’s before our Beijing adventure truly began. 

Cozy huh?

We arrived and headed straight to our hostel where we would be sleeping the next 3 nights. I know I know, some people hear hostel and think of a homeless shelter (or maybe that was just my original thought!) with bunks lining an auditorium room. Thankfully I was wrong about that! 5 of us shared a room and and it only cost us $5 per night for each of us!!! While it would have been nice for Joe and I to have our own room, it was worth saving the extra dough! And it was actually a nice place, especially when you consider the cost!

I was excited because Beijing actually looked like how I expected all of China to look - - ribbed roofing, pagodas, and “chinese like” architecture. 

Our first day, we headed to the Pearl Market. It’s a 6 story, bargainers paradise. They have the name brand goods there (some definitely fake knock off’s but others that look and feel like the real thing!) They will start at an extremely steep price and you have to work them down to about a tenth of what they originally say! For a super long time I have wanted to go there so I could stock up on North Face jackets and a nice hiking/travel backpack. Sure enough we got both! Joey also got a North Face jacket and 2 pairs of Nike Free’s. We left with our new treasures after having spent just over $100 for it all! Unfortunately I didn’t get any pearls like I wanted to but I know there will be many more shopping excursions while we are here. On the roof of the building there was a beautiful terrace to walk through that offered spectacular views of the “Temple of Heaven” across the street.

Pearl Market Storefront 

On the roof!

Temple of Heaven in the background

When we were walking around that day, we found this street where the 2008 Olympic Marathon ran through!

The next day, we went to the Olympic park!! I LOVE the Olympics!! I am thrilled beyond belief that they are only 5 months away! So it was a must-stop for us. Before we walked around the “Bird’s Nest” and the “Water Cube” we got our fill of “Ice-Scooting”! It is exactly as it sounds - - you scoot on the ice while sitting on a chair that has rails below you and use long ice picks to push yourself a long. We asked this group of Asian girls to snap our picture and they were so excited. They immediately asked if we would take pictures WITH them, which we proceeded to do for the next 5 minutes as they took turns taking the picture so each could have a chance to be in the picture with us. I’m not sure why but they love Americans here! They are completely fascinated by us. I loved being able to see the Olympic Park! It’s so awesome to me that they build these huge structures to house the Olympic games, a 2 week event, then it becomes a tourist spot for years to come. 

The signs are the best here! I'm sure I will include many throughout my China blogging! 

ICE-SKOOTING!!

In front of the "Bird's Nest" - - where all of the track and field events were held.

Something to ponder. 

Remember when I used to have orange elbows, hands and feet from eating too many sweet potatoes? Well that may come back while I am here! They sell them on the street and they are the best!

Forbidden City in the night

A building in Tiananmen Square

 On Sunday, we went to the GREAT WALL! I have wanted to hike the Great Wall for soo long! We signed up with a tour so we didn’t have to mess with finding the right area we wanted to go to. We were very glad we did because it made it so easy! It was about 2 hours from our hostel . We road a chair lift to the actual wall so we didn’t have to waste any time going up the stairs to the wall. We only had 3 hours so we needed to make it count! This section of the wall is called Mutianyu. Once you reach the Wall, if you go to the right then you can walk/climb to 6 towers that are unrestored. It was awesome!! Then we ventured over to the restored section - - towers 6 through 23. One word to some up the workout we put in there - - STAIRS! We pretty much climbed up and down stairs of all kinds, heights, and steepness! We actually made it past tower 23 which carried on to some very unrestored areas that were being taken over by plant growth. If it hadn’t been winter, all of the plant-life would have been bursting with color. On one side of the Wall you could look over into Mongolia and the other side, China. It was kind of unreal that we were actually ON the GREAT WALL! We loved every minute of it!! 

Check out how far it goes behind us! We made it to where the letters begin on the mountain in the distance

Just picture all of the brown, sleeping plants Green! Then you can see what it's like the rest of the year. 

Way past tower 23 it gets like this. No more nice tailored stairs. 

See how steep they are! It got even worse than this.

A tree coming out of the wall... kinda strange. 

To continue the fun, we road an alpine slide/tobaggan off of the wall to the bottom. If it weren’t for a slow poke in front of us we could have really gained speed on the metal railways!! 

These guys offered to take a picture with us. Then they asked us for money :(

That night, we walked the town!

 If you have a sensitive stomach or get queasy easy, look away for the next few pictures. They are GROSS. One of the street markets in Beijing is known for it’s scorpions, beetles, spiders, snakes, and more ON A STICK. Well I’ll just let you see for yourself...

SEAHORSES 

Yes, that definitely says Sheep Penis, it's the one right there next to the SNAKE wrapped around the stick!

Sad. 

 After being traumatized by the things we had just seen people eating, we found a dairy queen and I indulged in my childhood favorite - - a chocolate dipped cone! Joey had an Oreo Brownie Sunday. We were loving it!!

Monday was our final day, we were worn out but we still had much to see before days end. So we started off with the “Summer Palace”. It is where Emperor’s would escape to in the summers, so naturally it was extravagant and HUGE! We walked around the entire frozen lake, up MORE stairs, down MORE stairs, and looked into beautiful Pagodas.

Explanation of the tower above. 

MORE stairs. Our legs were still trashed from the Great Wall the day before!

So pretty.

 We then made it to the Forbidden City. From the outside it doesn’t really look that cool. It actually looks a little on the bland side and I wasn’t that excited for it but we couldn’t pass it up! We walked in and the place kept going and going and going. It was HUGE and actually very beautiful. One thing is for sure, the Chinese like color! We ended up being very glad we went. That night we were pooped. Absolutely exhausted so we ended it perfectly, sitting on the top floor of the hostel with two of our friends, Mckenna and Emma, eating spring rolls, salad and pizza while looking out over the lit up night scape of Beijing.

Awesome bedroom in the Forbidden City. 

Everyone snaps pictures in front of the red, extra-large door entering the Forbidden City, so Joe made sure he got one of me. 

 We climbed to the top of this park that had a beautiful tower. It gave us an amazing view of the Forbidden City. 

Finally it was time to head back to our train. We all passed out and arrived back in Changzhou the next morning, slightly dreading the day of teaching we had ahead of us.

And that night we started planning on our next big China adventure! : )

Have a great weekend!