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5/18/07
Spent a long weekend in China...because we can.
Arrived in Beijing Friday evening. Without a photo in hand, it was a little more difficult to find the hotel we were looking for (we found it in Lonely Planet - Fangyuan Hotel and although it was a great location, it was far from clean and we would not recommend it). After dumping our bags, we headed out to meet yet another one of Jay's friends - Josh. Josh lives in NY, but was in Beijing on a grad school trip. The 3 of us had a delicious dinner at a trendy restaurant and enjoyed catching up - it's funny how we made plans and met up with a friend in China and it felt totally normal.
5/19/07
Met up with Josh and some of his classmates and went to the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace is where the emperor and his family would spend their summers. It's a huge place - full of temples, gardens and lakes with cool architecture and some interesting artifacts. We were also able to talk to one of Josh's classmates who is originally from China. We learned about some of the political, enconomic
and social facets of the country. After a long day of sightseeing, we returned to Josh's posh hotel (ok - it wasn't that posh, but compared to our roach motel, it was super luxurious) to rest for a bit. We then joined Josh and some of his classmates at a great Brazilian restaurant for dinner in Sanlitun. Sanlitun is an area of the city with many expat bars.
5/20/07
Spent a lot of time trying to figure out what our next destination would be and how we'd get there. Once we decided on Vietnam, it took several hours to book a flight. We used the Chinese Expedia, but the major difference between their version and the American one is that the Chinese company doesn't allow you to book online with a credit card, so after many faxes back and forth, a ton of phone calls and a few hours, we paid for tickets that wouldn't be confirmed until the following morning because the people in the office were leaving for the day.
That evening we went to the Chaoyang Theater for a traditional Chinese acrobatics show. For about $25USD per ticket, we saw a show very similar in
Jay and Steph at the Summer Palace
It's so nice to finally have a picture of both of us!! nature to Cirque du Soleil - great costumes and music and crazy acrobatics. We were in pain watching how these people contorted their bodies. After the show, we went to Hoi Hai Lake for dinner, which is a really cool area to go out in - there are restaurants and bars one after another surrounding the lake. You could also rent your own little paddleboat (looked like they seated 6 comfortably) and bring your own dinner and drinks aboard and have a feast while riding around - we didn't do it, but it looked like fun.
5/21/07
This day made the trip to Beijing well worth it as the Great Wall of China definitely lived up to our expectations. The Great Wall is also known to the Chinese as the "10,000 Li Wall" - 1 li is about 500 meters. The "original" wall was begun over 2000 years ago during the Qin dynasty and the wall that exists today has been constructed by connecting separate walls that had been built by indepenent kingdoms to keep out nomads. During the Ming dynasty, a determined effort was made to rehash the wall, this time facing it with bricks and stone slabs.
Per Lonely Planet, the myth that the Great Wall is visible with the naked eye from the moon was finally laid to rest in 2003, when China's first astronaut Yang Liwei observed that he could not see the barrier from space.
We booked a private car and English-speaking driver (hard to find) to take us to the Muitanyu section of the Great Wall (there are a few different spots you can go to). Although it was definitely a shady transaction to book Mr. Lee (the guy we arranged it with told us not to tell anyone, so we gave Josh the name of the guy and hotel we booked him through just in case), he turned out to be super nice and a really entertaining chauffeur. Once we arrived at the Wall, we took a chair lift where our hike would begin. The Wall is perched high on top of and along the mountain - offering amazing scenic views of the surrounding area, but more importantly, of the Wall in the distance. It really is an amazing sight! To get back to the bottom, we took an alpine slide - a little commercial, but fun. Once we reunited with
Chinese Acrobatics Show
Almost as flexible as Jay Mr. Lee, we were relieved that he hadn't left us (we were told not to pay him until he returned us home). Once back in Beijing, Mr. Lee took us to a traditional Chinese teahouse, where we were given a private tasting, ceremony and "lesson" about all the different teas, how men and women should hold their teacups, etc. Our favorite was the lychee/rose tea. After separating from Mr. Lee, we went to the Xiushui Silk Market - it was a more subdued version of Shenzhen, but along the same lines. This one included knock-off Polo shirts (asking price was about $6USD), Spyder and Noth Face ski jackets, tailor-made suits, etc. We're getting the hang of this bargaining thing and are actually enjoying it! The trick is to completely ignore the price they ask for and offer below the price you are willing to pay - we usually paid less than one-tenth of the original asking price. Upon returning to the hotel, we found that our plane tickets had finally been delivered, so we headed to Sanlitun for dinner.
5/22/07
Despite the rain and Jay's cold, we tried to make the most of our last few hours in Beijing
and went to Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City. Tian'anmen Square is the world's largest public square and is widely known as the place of many unsuccessful democracy demonstrations. It was a very impressive sight, but we ran thru pretty quickly because of the downpour. From the square, we were able to see the Chairman Mao Mausoleum (he died in September, 1976) and some other sights. We then attempted to check out the Forbidden City, but the rain kept us from getting very far. Within 20 minutes, we called it quits and headed back to dry off. We were definitely disappointed that we didn't get to see all that we wanted to.
FUN FACTS:
- The People's Republic of China was established on October 1, 1949, with Beijing as its capital city.
- With well over 1.3 billion citizens, China is the world's most populous country and the third largest country in the world in terms of territory.
- China is undergoing rapid, profound economic and social change and development. Political power remains centralized in the Chinese Communist Party.
- Beijing will host the 2008 Olympics.
- Beijing is called Peking by some.
-
By 1279, Kublai Khan (Genghis Khan's grandson), had made himself ruler of the largest empire the world has ever known with Dadu (Beijing), its capital.
- Beijing is currently about the size of Belgium and we found it to be a huge city in which to get around.
RANDOM THOUGHTS BY JAY AND STEPH:
- They have a lot of work to do before the Olympics - like English signs and teaching the cabbies English.
- Touring the city is not easy - there is a lack of tourist information (we had to BUY a map) and English signage, among other things.
- McDonald's and Starbucks seem to have made their way to every crevice of the Earth - there's even a Starbucks inside the Forbidden City. KFC is pretty popular too.
- Pedestrians definitely do NOT have the right of way.
- China was our first taste of people trying to rip us off.
- Bicycles are a very popular means of transportation for the locals.
- The Chinese are only allowed to have 1 child - farmers are allowed to have 2.
- Despite it being socially acceptable in
China, Steph keeps reminding Jay that burping as loud as you can and hocking loogies as often as you can is NOT socially acceptable in the States.
- Next stop: Vietnam
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Robyn
non-member comment
Bargain like a New Yorker!
Glad to see you guys are bargaining your way through Asia! I hope some of our Shenzhen tactics paid off! Steph, bet like you were glad to have that new rain jacket- our helper will love Jay's reject one.