Life outside of Beijing

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This weekend 11 of us took an adventurous roadtrip to the grasslands north of Beijing. Five of us were students from the same program while the rest were Chinese friends and co-workers of one of my group members. It was a great time had by all, as we were able to escape the city life and see the more rural side of China. We left around seven on Saturday morning to get on a Greyhound type bus in Beijing. The bus ride lasted about three and a half hours, until the bus apparently ran into a van and we all had to get off the bus. Fortunately we were in a good sized town and were able to rent a driver (and his wife and little daughter) to take us to our destination in a crowded van. Surprisingly the sky didn't seem to clear up once out of Beijing, but the air did cool down a bit. The van then took us to a feast of a lunch in the basement of a restaurant. It still amazes me that every meal all the dishes are new, the food never gets boring. After lunch we went to an area in the country that was kind of like a carnival where you could play games, ride camels, and drive go-carts. After checking that out, we drove down the road to a place where we could ride horses. We were actually allowed to ride the horses by ourselves, we didn't have to sign a waiver or anything! I can't say I was any good at it, but it was still a thrill being put on a horse and trying to figure it out on your own. After an hour of horse riding, we were all really hungry and so we ate yet another feast for dinner. Once we had finished, us students figured we were probably going to go to the hotel and crash since we had had a long day. But then we found ourselves at a karaoke place, as we were just along for the ride! The way karaoke is done in China, is that they have these places that are specifically for karaoke and you just rent a room. The one we were in was rather large, with sofas all around the outside of the room and a big screen tv front and center for the words to be displayed. They also served us tea and watermelon seeds. Of course the majority of the music was Chinese, but they did have some English songs. However, the selection was extremely odd. They had songs from Backstreet Boys to John Denver's "Country Roads" to The Sound of Music's "Edelweiss". After everyone's voices were gone, we then retired at the hotel, which thank goodness had a proper bathroom.

Sunday started out with yet another huge meal for breakfast, then they took us to a lake that is being developed into a resort. The area was gorgeous and the blue sky was actually visible! Then we went back to the horse place and rode the horses for another hour. Afterwards we ate a huge lunch and then headed back to the bus station. We got back to our dorm in Beijing around nine.

I really enjoyed seeing the countryside, seeing where all the food in Beijing comes from, and how the country people live. A lot of it reminded me of Mexico's rural areas. The difficult part for me is always getting over the fact that when you are eating at these rural places, the dishes are not particularly clean and the food preparation methods would not meet health safety standards. But I haven't died yet, and amazingly (knock on wood), I haven't even been sick yet. The beauty of this whole weekend was that the transportation, horse riding, hotel, and huge meals all totalled to be less than 50 US dollars!

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Comments

[Carla]

weekend trip
Sounds like you had a fun trip! Glad you were able to get out of the city for a bit! Did you ride the camels at your first stop? I would think that would have been a little more uncomfortable than the horses! :-) Your days in China are more than half over. We'll be excited to hear more of your trip when you get home!

[Ma]

Country
Sounds like a great weekend. I mis-understood, I thought you were going to Shanghai. Where - which direction from Beijing were you? Riding horses can be fun! Fresh air is even better-----

[anonymous]

Weather is hot in Ohio. Lots of work to be done. Don't rush home too soon.