Alive and well in Beijing!

Good evening everyone!

I have made it safely to Beijing and was pleasantly surprised to finally experience some cooking hot weather. The last few days have been 30+ degrees and I have to say that my sun tan is finally coming in nicely. Monday night we departed from Daqing around 8pm on an overnight train ride scheduled to take about 13 hours. The sleeper train was divided into a bunch of separate rooms that would house 4 people each for the evening. There wasn't much to do other than read and chit chat about nothing so we attempted to sleep and wait for the morning to come.

At 9am we were greeted in Beijing by the blazing sun. We hopped into a taxi and headed across the city in search of a hostel that we had located on the internet. When we arrived however, we discovered that it no longer existed. Fortunately Niki had spent some time in Beijing previously and knew about a different one, so we ventured over there instead. After getting settled in we walked down the street to the Ya Show shopping mall which was enormous. I believe it was 6 stories tall and basically had everything that you would ever need to survive. The bottom level consisted just of shoes, while the others had all kinds of other clothes and goodies piled from floor to ceiling. Everything was extremely cheap too, and if it wasn't priced at what you wanted to pay, everyone was very open to negotiation. I purchased some pretty cool art, shoes, and T-shirts for basically nothing. One main difference that I immediately noticed in Beijing when compared to the more isolated Daqing was that nearly every Asian person working there spoke English which was nice. Despite that, if I spoke my little bit of Chinese the negotiations usually worked out more in my favour. After a few hours of shopping we went to a Mediterranean restaurant to enjoy some well deserved cold beverages and delicious food including tzatziki and naan bread and a great Greek salad. As a result of our lack of sleep on the train the night before we packed it in early.

The next morning Jeff and I woke up at 7am and crossed the city to a tour company that would help us get to the Great Wall. We were hoping to go to a part of the wall that less touristy and more of a hike, but we discovered that it was too expensive and you needed to have a 4 person minimum in your group. So we boarded a bus for a more reasonable price and off we went. Because it was an Asian company, and there were only 2 other foreigners on the bus, we were forced to listen to the tour lady speaking in Chinese for a good couple hours on the drive over to the Wall...it was a bit much. Before the Wall however, the bus stopped at a small restaurant for lunch and then to the Ming Tombs which were the burial grounds for the ancient ruler of the Ming Dynasty. There wasn't a lot to see here and since our tour guide was speaking in Chinese it was fairly difficult to get a full understanding and appreciation for what we were looking at. Despite that, it was interesting to see.

The next stop was the Great Wall. In order to get to the Wall from the location that the bus brought us to everybody had to board a roller coaster type contraption, which was very unexpected, and reminded me of a Disneyland type ride. After a short journey to the top Jeff and I were ready to hike. We explored for about 2.5 hours in the scorching sun which was definitely more than enough. The sights were incredible and paired with a crystal blue sky I got some beautiful pictures. Combined, I think we probably drank about a dozen bottles of water. We took the roller coaster back down after exhausting ourselves in the sun and had to sit on the bus for another 2 hours through Beijing rush hour traffic. From there we decided to venture underground and see if we could figure out the subway sytem which was extremely extensive. With a little bit of help we were on the right track but had to switch trains a few times because of the many different lines that ran through the city.

That night the group of us, via subway again since we mastered it earlier, went over to an extremely popular outside market. It had all types of exotic foods and drinks and was also full of vendors selling souvenirs and art. We gathered the courage to try some deep fried scorpions as well as starfish. The scorpions were actually pretty tasty but I couldn't say that same for the little sea creature. It basically tasted exactly like ocean water, but was a littler saltier and had a very tough and chewy texture. It was an interesting experience but I don't know if I will give those a go again. After crusing the streets for a while and eating a regular dinner we heading back to the hostel to catch some Z's.

Today Jeff and I scoped out the Forbidden City which is the original city in Beijing. I will write more about this in my next blog because am I running out of out time on this computer and need to post some pictures still. I still miss you all and believe or not I have gotten a little homesick from time to time! But overall everything is going great and I am looking forward to heading to Malaysia this Sunday and letting the real adventures begin!

Peace and Love,
Kalee

There were only 2 other non-Asians on the bus and because of that we were forced to listen

---

---