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Published: October 14th 2012
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Gotta Love That Beijing Smog
These two pictures were literally taken within 10 minutes of each other... I think by being in Beijing for five days I took five years off of my life. After five days in Chengdu, it was time to head off for Beijing. I think what most surprised me about our trip from Chengdu to Beijing was the airport and airplane experience. The inside of Chengdu's airport is filled with smog, since I guess the outside is at its full smog capacity. The airplane surprised me for a different reason--they still serve food on domestic flights and you get way more leg room, even though Chinese people are typically short (at least Southern Chinese people are).
Wednesday was our trip to the Great Wall. It took us two hours by car to the part of the Great Wall we visited. The actual ticket to get on the Great Wall was fairly cheap (about 5 USD), but they get you because you also have to pay a million dollars for the gondola ride up and the toboggan ride down. Yes, the toboggan ride down. They've kind of turned the Great Wall into a mini amusement park.
I was surprised by how run down the Great Wall was. After being in London all summer and seeing how well they maintain their great national monuments, I figured China would do the same.
The Great Wall of China...kind of
Some parts of the Great Wall are a little overgrown... Nope. The parts near the gondola and toboggan were fine, because that's where the most amount of foot traffic is, but as you get farther away from the tourists, the wall becomes more overgrown. We finally got to one section of the Great Wall that was more jungle than wall--it had a bunch of trees and other plants growing on top of it and you could only see a sliver of what used to be the Wall.
Once home from the Great Wall, we decided we had to watch Disney's
Mulan, and everywhere in the movie we were yelling "we've been there, we've been there" even though when Mulan was saving all of China, the capital was Xi'an and not Beijing, but it all looks the same in the Disney movie.
Thursday we took it pretty easy--we spent about six hours shopping, before heading off to a bar that gave out free pizza and broadcasted the Presidential debate from YouTube. It was literally the most white people I've seen in one place in two months. Everyone had on Obama shirts (I guess it was a Democratic convention) and was yelling and cheering at the TV.
Afterwards, we
The Great Wall
A view from the Great Wall headed over to Starbucks, where we started talking to some Egyptians who have lived in Beijing for five years. At one point, one of the guys asks me, "what are you?" As a hapa, you get used to that often being the first thing people ask you, sometimes even before "Hello". Before he gave me a chance to answer though, he said "you're Egyptian aren't you?" When I said no, he replied with, "Iranian? Definitely Iranian" at which point I said "no, I'm half Chinese half Caucasian, but 100% American" and he said, "Ohhh. Wow, America has such strange people there". Thanks dude.
Friday we visited the place where the Beijing Olympics were held back in 2008. Unlike London, who used pre-existing stadiums (for the most part) to hold events and were thus scattered throughout the UK, China decided to bulldoze people's houses down so that they could build the Olympic stadiums all in the same place. The saddest part about that is that after the Olympics were over, China had no use for the buildings, and so the buildings stand unused after just four years, and they are also falling apart very quickly.
Once we had walked
Off To The Olympics Again
Even the sign is missing letters... around the Olympic center for a while, we headed over to the Summer Palace. I was really not prepared for the amount of tourists this place had. We only stayed for a couple of hours, even though the place was huge and we could have spent all day there, because of how many tourists there were.
Saturday was our last day in Beijing. By this point in time, we were exhausted from 10 days of travelling. In the morning, a couple of us went to Forbidden City and Tian'anmen Square, just because we felt like we had to. Forbidden City was not as impressive as I had thought, but Tian'anmen Square was huge! We finished off Saturday with Anthony cooking tacos for us--between the five of us I think we finished off 20 hard taco shells. It was delicious!
That about wraps up our independent travel week, which gives me just enough time to relax before we are headed off to Hong Kong in two weeks! I can't wait to eat my weight (and then some) in dim sum. I'm surprised none of the Americans here know what it is...I guess it must be a West Coast thing
to have Chinese food. They're in for a treat when they finally get a taste in a couple weeks!
PS--If you're tired of guessing what time on Sunday I publish my blog, you can always subscribe and then you get fancy emails telling you when I've updated my blog (since I get emails on Sundays saying "when are you publishing your blog??") Enjoy!
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Auntie Mamie
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Yao Ming Isn't Short
Northern Chinese (like Yao Ming) can be pretty tall. You're right about southerners being the shorties. But not all of us are short. My dad was taller than your dad. When I went to the Great Wall in '79, there was no gondola. We just climbed on and walked it. It was pretty rundown then, even in the spots where most of the tourists went (which was about 1/4 mile). We went further. The thing I didn't realize was how winding, (up and down & side to side) it was, which made it had to keep balanced and walk. But we did. It was quite an experience. Hong Kong has dim sum we don't have in the U.S. so it will be a terrific treat!!!