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Published: June 17th 2009
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Day 2- Beijing.
First, I must apologize for the lack of photos for the next few entries. We are having a hard time finding an internet cafe that will let us upload photos. Not to fear, though. We have taken over 400 pictures in our week here so you'll have plenty to see once we get to a suitable place.
On our second day in Beijing, after vowing to never eat American food again on our trip, we started our day with a visit to the Olympic Green. A bit of an oxymoron as there is nothing but concrete as far as the eye can see, but impressive none the less. Even the subway station near the Green is a tourist attraction! We walked around the Water Cube and the Bird's Nest. Of course, they were selling tickets to go inside, but we figured we already knew what a pool looks like. The grounds around the stadiums are absolutely beautiful and they've even dropped in a ferris wheel. After a couple of hours sweating through our clothes (it was 34 C!) we decided we really needed to come back at night and see it all lit up.
Next
stop was the Dengyue Temple, an important Taoist temple in China. The temple consisted of many different rooms with lifesize statues representing the 18 layers of hell and 30-something administrations that oversee everything from sea life to horrible deaths. The temple also had some really impressive active shrines (aka GOLD), but, of course, no photo allowed. After petting the bronze horse of wealth for luck, we headed out in search of lunch.
Eating has been quite the adventure....we know two whole phrases in Chinese: hello and thank you. So far it has gotten us through, but ordering typically consists of pointing at something, holding up fingers for how many, being asked lots of questions in Chinese, and then paying. Amazingly, we haven't had a bad meal yet! Besides our Irish pub dinner, everything has been remarkedly cheap. Lunch for both of us costs a little less than $3.
After lunch, we headed to the Drum and Bell Towers in the NW part of Beijing. They date to the Ming dynasty and were used to announce the time and other emergencies. Ironically, both burnt down many times and have been rebuilt over the years. Unfortunately, the Drum tower was
closed for renovation so we were stuck with the less spectacular Bell Tower. After climbing the insanely steep steps, we got a 360 view of Beijing and a massive bell (the sides of which are 10cm thick).
Of course, the real reason we went to the Drum and Bell Towers was to go to the Drum and Bell Bar. The towers were located in one of the original villages of Beijing, known as Hutongs. The Hutongs are very narrow lanes of ramshackle houses with groups of houses around a central courtyard. Most are being destroyed to make way for more highrises. Anyways, the Drum and Bell Bar has a rooftop patio that overlooks the Hutong roofs and a pretty impressive collection of random powerlines. It was quite relaxing to have a couple a Tsingtaos and watch old Beijing life play out beneath us.
Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel for a lovely outdoor BBQ dinner. Pretty much any thing you could imagine was available on a stick and cooked by a couple of guys simultaneously smoking, drinking, and cooking. We choose some lovely lamb, ox strap (don't know exactly what it was, but it was good!), sweet
potato on a stick (yum!), and slices of steamed buns, spiced and grilled. The perfect ending to a long day.
So, my apologies for the lack of photos, but this will all make more sense when you can see the pics! Thanks for all those sending comments (xie xie!) and we're very glad to hear that Indigo is adjusting to his new brother!
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Stephanie
non-member comment
everything sounds so great!!!!