Beijing

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Here's a belated post about my trip to China last July:

The first thing I noticed in Beijing was how different their accent was compared to Shanghai. I had actually gotten used to hearing Mandarin spoken around me for the last few days which was much different from Korean and its up and down whiny sound. Mandarin reminded me of Thai with all the tones, but not in Beijing. Even after growing up with good ole boys in the South who take English to a new level, I’ve never heard one language sound so different from one place to another. Just dump a sack of marbles in your mouth and you’ll be close to the sound. It was cool.

A few days later I was on a bus and this pasty English guy next to me had a disagreement about pay with the tour guide. A minute into it he broke into perfectly fluent Mandarin and had a hardcore argument with this guy for about 20 minutes. If I closed my eyes I couldn’t tell the difference between the two. It was nuts.

The city itself was huge and sprawling. One guy said it was the size of Belgium, though I’m not too sure about that. Anyway, it was very different from Shanghai and the pollution was so bad when you looked down the street it would fade into brown fog two blocks down. In 2008, Beijing is hosting the Olympics and supposedly the whole town is under construction, and it really looked it.

The first day I went to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden Palace where the emperor used to stay shut up with his concubines and look out over the city. I spent the rest of my time in Beijing walking around and eating. There was one strip of food vendors were they sell what must be the oddest collection of food on earth, all on one block. I doubt any Beijingers actually eat here on a regular basis but its good fun for “crazy” tourist. They have everything from starfish to centipedes to sheep testicles on a stick. At one stand a guy was threading live scorpions onto a wooden stick with his bare hands. I thought bagging groceries was a bad job.

We also went to a huge market where the sell all the imitation goods that China has become infamous for. You could buy everything from fake nikes and Lacoste shirts to imitation ipods and golf clubs. And it was about 5% of the cost in the States.

One day my friends and I took a trip to the Great Wall, about a 4 hour trip away near the Mongolian border. We got to hike on the wall for about 4 ½ hours and were actually the only ones we could see for some parts of it, so I got some cool pictures. These Mongolian farmers have learned a bit of English and sit along the wall offering great advice such as “careful” and “very hard” while you’re hiking. Then of course they want you to buy the amazing postcards or “I climbed the Wall” T-shirts they haul up on their back. The wall itself had been worn away some from the local farmers who pick stones off it and build irrigation tunnels with them over the years. Other than that it was really cool with huge watch tower forts built along it that you could climb around on.

On the last day there we met this guy who was staying at our guesthouse. We were just chatting with him about what we had done that day when he mentioned his bike. After asking about where he had ridden it, we couldn't have imagined his answer. He had just finished a sixteen month, 19 country journey from his home in Paris. He rode all the way through Europe to Iran, through India, Southeast Asia and up to China, all to raise awareness for an environmental NGO he was working with. Unbelievable!

China was a great time and a much needed break from teaching in Seoul. I can't believe it, but I just finished a year here. I'm headed back home for visit and back here for 6 more months. I haven't really decided what to do after that. Maybe I should get a bike...

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Comments

[Mom]

Great!
It is great to see your pics of Bejing and hear about your trip.I can't wait to see you! Much love, Mom