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Published: August 17th 2009
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My last two entries in this blog have been entered after the study abroad program as I was busy with finals at the end of the program.
During the program we had one 5 day break which I used to go to Beijing. Although we initially planned on taking the hard sleeper train for some reason they were only running soft sleepers and it was actually cheaper to fly to Beijing. We arrived late on Thursday July 2nd and stayed in a international youth hostel for about 6USD a night per person.
The first day we woke up early to join the huge crowds that line up to see Mao Zedong's body, which has daily viewings in the mornings and afternoons in a mausoleum in Tienanmen Square. Leader of the communist movement in China and the brutal cultural revolution, Mao Zedong is an important figure in modern day history. Security was very strict, everyone was required to check all their bags before getting in line and also had to go through a second security checkpoint with metal scanners before entering the Mausoleum to ensure that no one takes pictures of his body. Although the line took 2hrs the actual
viewing lasted less then 5 minutes as the crowds were not allowed to stop moving as they viewed Mao Zedong embalmed corpse inside his glass casket. After this we crossed Tienanmen Square to the entrance to the Forbidden City, home to the Chinese emperors and citizens were forbidden (hence the name) from entering until Mao Zedong opened it to tourists. The complex was huge and filled with traditional Chinese architecture and really takes two trips to fully appreciate although we could only afford one. After this we spent the rest of the afternoon exploring Bei Hai Park and even rented a battery powered boat and relaxed on the water with a bottle of water. We finished the night at Wanfunjing Snack market where we tried some exotic snacks including scorpion, starfish, and gecko!
The next day we went took an hour bus ride to the Summer Palace, a lake retreat palace set up for the emperor. It was especially popular with the Empress Cixi. After spending most of the day here we headed back to the Hostel to rest up before heading to the Silk Market to engage in some intense black market haggling. The market closed at 9:30pm
so we went to sleep early in anticipation of our Great Wall Hike
On Day 3 we woke up at 5:30 to catch the first bus to the Great Wall, although my roommate and I woke up late and had to run to the train station and ended up catching the next bus. After meeting back up we piled into a Taxi Van to Jiashanling, a more remote part of the wall. We did a 4 hr hike from there to Simiatai. The walk offered a more authentic and less crowded view of the wall than the more popular Badaling section which is closer to Beijing. Parts of the wall were in disrepair and even dangerous. This excursion took the whole day and we came back exhausted.
Day 4
Day 4 was a little more laid back with a trip to the Llama Temple, the capital Buddhist temple and the Olympic park where we saw the famous Bejing Olympic structures the Water Cube and the Birds' Nest. We went back to the Silk Market to get some last minute deals since this was our last full day.
Day 5 we spent at the Temple of Heaven and
the Military Museum. Unfortunately a week in Beijing pollution had severly aggravated my eyes and I could barely open my eyes because they were so sensitive to light. The Temple of Heaven was huge and had many smaller temples but because of my eyes I only saw the main temple before going to the Military Museum. While the Military Museum lacked English captions it was an interesting and filled with Communist propaganda. There were several school trips there and one of the teachers asked me to take a picture with her kids. After this we headed back to pick up our stuff so we could go the airport and go back to Shanghai.
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