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Hi everyone! So I'm back in Nanjing after a fantastic weekend in Beijing. A group of six of us went on Friday night after class and returned Monday morning. I've made a pretty good group of friends here, people who prior to this trip I did not know but living in close quarters, spending five hours in class together means we've come to know each other quite well by now.
Friday night we arrived in Beijing and went straight to our hotel located in a Hutong. Hutongs are lanes or alleys with houses formed around courtyards. They are slowly being destroyed in Beijing due to the rapid development so staying in one is like stepping back in time. In the period of two days we managed to visit Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City, The Summer Palace and the The Great Wall at Mutianyu. I also managed to haggle my way around the Pearl Market which is totally overwhelming but lots of fun.
The Summer Palace is just amazing and beautiful, perhaps my favorite thing so far. Sunday morning we went to the Great Wall. We wanted to avoid what we heard was the most commercialized part of the
Wall (Badaling) so we ventured a little farther to the Mutianyu section of the Wall. Although it is not considered as commercialized - in my eyes it still was very much so. The Great Wall has a toboggan that runs from the top down! It sounded like commercialism gone wrong to me...I mean sliding down The Great Wall? I bought a ticket…couldn’t stop myself. We actually ended up taking the long way up the wall so by the time we were ready to turn around and head back towards the slide down we were too exhausted to trek back. We opted for taking the cable car down. Yes, the cable car - which by the way is marketed by using a picture of Bill Clinton who took it once. Pretty funny.
The food was another great highlight. We had some amazing meals and visited the famed LiQun Duck Restaurant - long been hailed as one of the best Peking duck restaurants in Beijing. Due to all the amazing reviews in Time, The Economist, The Guardian we were shocked to find ourselves in a demolished Hutong neighborhood staring at a ramshackle little building which looked like the lone survivor of
a bulldozer attack. I imagine if I were to go back in a year it would be surrounded by skyscrapers.
So, in China for some reason people are constantly taking our photos! I have no idea why or where they will end up but people will literally take pictures of us with their cameras and cell phones while we are just walking down the street! In Beijing at the Forbidden City two Chinese girls came up to me and asked if they could have their photos taken with me, it was pretty funny. One of my friends who is here has blond hair and she is literally stopped everyday and asked for a picture. It's a very unusual feeling but everyone is so nice that we all are happy to oblige.
But anyways, loved Beijing and was sad to leave. I could have stayed there much longer. My camera died throughout the trip to Beijing so I’m still collecting photos that other people took, but for now enjoy the ones posted here!
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anonymous
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Que chevereeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I love the pictures! Yo tambien quiero ir!!!!! Cuando regresas oye monga, que no tengo con quien chismear!!!! Besos!