Long Vacation: Day 8

Travel day! But first a visit to the Yonghegong Llama Temple on the street of our hostel. It was an experience that smelled strongly of incense and was filled with too many Buddhas to count and just as many sneaky pictures of them that definitely weren’t allowed..


Enjoying our cultural experience maybe a little too much?


This would explain all of the incense being sold on the street of our hostel. Go figure!

And the Buddhas..




That's a big buddha!!


I still have no idea what any of that had to do with llamas. Oh well!

One last trip to Silk Street and we were going to be on our way to Xi'an. I had exercised self-control and passed up many things I wanted until a pair of perfect knock-off Asics were literally handed to me and I had to stop and barter for them. Amanda and I tried every tactic we knew, telling the lady Amanda had a student with her same name (which was completely the truth), getting a picture with her..

..and we eventually got them down pretty low. Just take the picture and give me my dang Asics!


Remember how the last train I took to Beijing was an awesome little experience on a sleeper seat, tons of fun and full of smiles and everything wonderful. Welllllll...

Enter the hard sitting seat. They are adequately named. I sat straight up on a seat sharing leg room with three Chinese men for ELEVEN HOURS. Hours that should have been spent in a bed of my own not smelling like a hundred Chinese people who haven't showered in days. It was so awful. The most uncomfortable thing ever. Almost unspeakably so. Not to mention other perks of the night.. trying to balance over a squatter to change into my pajama pants. Or waiting for the man with the noodle cart to come (he never did). This picture pretty much sums up the experience...

These are the two guys across from me. Obviously they found the only comfortable sleeping position. That black, blonde, and light green mess on the right is me laying on the little table between the 2 rows of seats, with the hood of my jacket over my head in an attempt to block out the light of the train to get some sleep. Yuck. After that the international flight home is laughable. I'm not sure where to end this post in terms of what happened last that night because it's all a jumble in my brain of waking up from sleeping on Amanda every 10 minutes to re-adjust, fall asleep, repeat, over and over and over, all the while trying to cuddle with a seat that stuck at a 100 degree angle. My back hurts just thinking about it….{shiver}

And I couldn't help but wonder, "How long have we been on this train? Is this ever going to end?"

Until then, I just tried to sleep and avoid playing footsies with the sprawled-out legs of the Chinese man across from me.

And to think I couldn’t wait to experience a train across China.

Long Vacation: Day 7

No fooling around today, we were GOING to see the dead body of Mao. As the week went on we progressively got up earlier and earlier and we actually made it out of the hostel by about 10:30 today {yay!}. Funny how vacation does that to you. We wanted to beat the rush by getting there as close to when it opens at possible but it wasn't so. Luckily for us there wasn't a huge line and it was moving pretty fast. We were smarter today and sent half of our group in while the other half waited with the bags. Genius :)


Debbie, Amanda and I waiting in the heat. Umbrellas aren't just for rain, folks :) Eventually the others came back and sat with the stuff while we went in to the monument. First of all it was really cool to see the reverence that the Chinese people had in coming to pay their respects to this man who is pivotal in their history. Second, it was freaking weird to see the preserved body of a guy who I see every time I spend a bill here and for some odd reason his face was very orange. I think it was the lighting but either way it was just a successfully creepy experience.


I found the building on the back of the 100 yuan. Woot!
(The only shame in this is that no one at home will appreciate the unbelievable greatness of this picture. Oh well!)


From there we rode the Subway to a new pearl market that most of us hadn't ventured to up to that point. My head teacher and her husband said the bargaining was easier there and that they had stuff we hadn't found at Silk Street so we went for a look. This was probably the worst day in Beijing and one of the biggest "I hate China days" of my experience living here. The sales hawks were as merciless as vultures and I seriously felt preyed upon as Amanda and I floundered to pick out a suitcase for her and a lady literally pushed me because I wasted her time in not wanting the pair of definite knock-off-looking Asics. You hang around the dishonest, rude, deceitful and self-serving Asians long enough and you start to despise all of them! Bargaining is a clever game of wits in some ways but it was not fun here. We eventually went back to the warm familiarity of our beloved Silk Street and finished the night feeling better about China and life in general. Stupid hecklers at the pearl market. Nobody likes you and I hope bad things happen to you in life. Not really, you just completely annoyed and humiliated me and that wasn't okay. May we never cross paths again.


My favorite Beijing salesperson, Sherrie! Look at all her jeans! We made friends with her and she gave us good prices on them :) I tried on jeans in that corner with only this Chinese person shielding me from anyone walking by. Lovely. By the end of Beijing it didn't even phase me...


Anyway, it's all in the past. Hakuna Matata. With our nights becoming fewer and fewer, Joey, Debbie and I decided it was Round 2--time to make the journey to the Olympic Stadium again! Our ride through the Subway transfers was much smoother and on our last one before Bird's Nest station we could tell we were close because of how awesome it was decorated! It was a nice change from the normally drab platforms we were used to.

Think of all the nationalities, athletes and spectators alike, that used this subway in 2008! Way cool! (Can you tell the Summer Olympics are my favorite?)


We came up out of the station to find an arrangement of beautiful buildings surrounding us. We all started laughing and basking in the glory! But it was short-lived-- the lights shut off, I kid you not, 10 seconds after we made it. Oh brother. We walked down the street a ways to the Bird's Nest only to find that everything closes at 10, that people were being herded out of the stadium and for some reason the Nest wasn't even lit up. Disappointing...there was a little street vendor selling old Olympic merchandise and I'm totally not ashamed that I bought a little silver Bird's Nest keychain and hooked it on my belt loop. I was on an Olympic high, okay? We tried to get as close as we could for some good pictures but the distance plus the lighting were just not working out.

Our best attempts:


Yep. Hard to photograph. Still awesome though!


Yet again some Olympian pictures were necessary..

The Olympic torch finally in context, woohoo!


Swimming to water cube. Even harder to photograph and not illuminated at all. These people make it so hard to be a tourist sometimes!!


Just to add to the sheer bliss of the night, there was a guy selling sweet potatoes from a cart outside the stadium and we were starving so we bought one and shared it.

Um, yeah...it was one of the tastiest things ever, whether because of the overall experience or because I was starving. For whatever reason, the Bird's Nest, the Water Cube, a sweet potato and a group of joggers really made the Olympic adventure a freaking amazing one.

Long Vacation: Day 6

We woke up with the intent of seeing the dead body of Mao. If you don't know who that is, google him. The Readers Digest version: he established communism in China. His methods were questionable so whether that makes him the good guy or the bad guy, I still haven't decided but all I knew was that his body has been preserved and I was going to see it. It's the guy whose face is on all the paper money, can you blame me? ;) We went to Tiananmen Square determined.

Off the subway..

..and we found a building with his face on it. A good sign, no? (It was way cool to be in a place I'd seen tons of pictures of! Very stereotypical Beijing picture, I love it). Something about language barriers makes sight-seeing a problem--asking directions being the main concern. So although we really had no idea if Mao's body was through the tunnel that seas of Chinese people were walking through we decided to follow them anyway. We walked a ways and realized that we were in the Forbidden City. Surprise! After a little bit of deliberation Amanda and I decided that we didn't want to pay 65 kuai to go in..so we decided to head back to Tiananmen Square to find Mao's body again. After a bunch of wandering around like chickens with our heads cut off from the north end to the south end and back again, we figured out where the entrance was. Woot. But just as soon as we joined the thronging masses to be checked by security, a guard with a megaphone barked something at us and signaled us out of the line. We thought maybe it was because we were foreigners but eventually realized we couldn't bring our bags in. Annoyed and tired at this point we bagged that idea and impulsively decided to go to the Temple of Heaven.

Another cool park with dancing old people. Very quaint :) Here are some pictures..


(I think I need a new jumping pose. Still fun nonetheless!)






Here's something we never get home in Zhongshan--clear skies!!! I was definitely soaking it up, I miss blue skies so much.

We went to an open market for souvenirs and then for dinner we had famous Beijing duck! Oh but first...

...we met a turtle. And then they cooked him up and we ate him. This whole situation was very weird but I kinda liked it.


The duck! Yum :)


The cooked and plated turtle. I found it a little inhumane that it was all chopped up and cooked and arranged like a live turtle. I ate it's leg. Hehe :) It tasted pretty good. But mostly it was just cool that I was eating a turtle ;)



Once again my fascination with the sky. Something else I miss: sunsets. Beijing gave me a great one :)


And a random photo tip:

How to not get robbed on the metro

Long Vacation: Day 5

Drumroll please, this was the best day in Beijing!

And it includes my tour of the Great Wall, naturally.

It started at 7:30 when we all sleepily got into another grey van with a tour guide who looked Chinese but must have learned his English from an Aussie because he was sure rocking an Australian accent, it was the trippiest thing! A Chinese person with an Australian accent, try to imagine it for a second if you can. We’d paid for our tour to include the Ming Tombs as well as the Great Wall but had no idea plans to visit both jade and silk factories and also participate in a traditional Chinese tea-serving ceremony. Little did we know that each of those was just a marketing ploy to get us to buy their over-priced merchandise but ya know, all in the experience, right?

We started at the jade factory where they told us a 5 minute history of the culture of jade which was interesting but then they set us free in their store where we dinked around looking at cool stuff but keeping our money safely in our wallets to spend elsewhere. We picked up two blonde Danish girls here who were on the rest of the tour with us. We talked to them a little but one of them didn’t speak English very well. They were on a trip around the world and dressed interestingly. Mostly it was just funny and random :)

Next we visited the Ming Tombs, which were honestly a disappointment, but had their small perks. We chose the underground part of the tour that was just a re-creation of how it would have looked immediately after the Ming emperors were buried but it was still kind of neat. I felt a little jipped that everything was re-created and all the treasures has been moved to a museum and the boxes holding the bodies were just replicas, but when we asked our tour guide about it he simply said, “This isn’t Egypt!” Absolutely right, Leo, China is certainly not Egypt. For some reason that just works with everything I’ve learned about China at this point ;)

The best part about the tour was the ghost gate we passed on our way in and eventually had to go out, saying some sort of anti-ghost spell and brushing ourselves off so that the evil spirits couldn’t come back to the real world with us. We passed these ladies as they were coming out and they were all squealing as they went in, it was pretty hilarious :)


Then..we took one of the most windy/long bus rides ever, maybe due to hunger, tiredness, or anticipation of seeing the Great Wall but whatever the case it just seemed like it would NEVER end. It was one of those times that you turn to the person next to you and ask them, “Wait, how long have we been here?” because you honestly can’t remember anything before it. We did a lot of things to entertain ourselves and my favorite was definitely taking close-ups of eachother’s faces while they weren’t looking. Priceless :) And at one point I un-veiled my ability to bark like a dog to these people who thought they knew me after 3 months and they were amazed. From that point on I was referred to as “the little barking girl” by the tour guide. Sweet :) I was sitting on one of the seats facing backwards and had to switch a kid seats because the bends in the road were making me nauseous. Eventually we stopped for lunch and had one of the best meals I’ve had in China and then we rode a couple more minutes to Mu Tian Yu part of the Great Wall.

I got to do the Great Wall right. We bought tickets that included a ski lift up and a toboggan (like the Alpine Slide) down. It gave us maximum amount of time on the Great Wall and let’s be honest, it’s freaking amazing to say that I’ve done each of those on the Great Wall.

In a lot of ways the Great Wall was not what I imagined but there are not many more words to describe it so we go with pictures!!


Two thumbs up for the Great Wall!! I can check something off my Bucket List :)




Before I came to the Great Wall I had heard that it was mostly stairs. I am here to tell you this is absolutely true. Good thing I’ve had lots of practice since I’ve been in China, living and teaching on the fourth floor.


There are connecting guard towers in between stretches of the wall and with the amount of time we had there wasn’t much time to explore but Debbie, Joey and I booked it as fast as we could to this one over-looking a great stretch of wall and while the stairs nearly killed us it was worth it!


This was the background on my desktop for awhile :)



See what I mean? Stairs..


One last look at the Great Wall! We had to meet the tour guide soon but I really couldn’t peel myself away from the awesome sights around me! This is a restored part of the wall but even to keep it up is quite a feat! Someday I want to go to an original section of the wall but that will have to be an adventure for another time.


On the toboggan down!

We hurried and bought “I hiked the Great Wall” T-shirts and piled in our van and slept the whole way down. Spent but content :)

We went to the silk factory and saw a couple silk worms and raw silk sheets and were left to buy their stuff again and walked around the corner to the tea ceremony, and although it was once again just to get us to buy stuff it was still cool. The tea stuff is something that the Chinese government does for free at that particular tea house to keep the culture of tea-serving alive. Way fun to participate in something as central as tea to Chinese culture in so many ways! Seriously, it’s everywhere, in everything. There is a green tea version of Sprite, even! I could drink two of the herbal teas and although I wasn’t that impressed by the taste I felt very immersed in the experience. This is a part of life for so many here!


That was it for the tour, and I bet you know how we finished the day ;)

Would it surprise you to know I had to forcefully sit on my suitcase to convince the zipper to do its thing, and still had to put random items such as one mate of a shoe and my hairbrush in other people's suitcases?

It shouldn’t!

Long Vacation: Day 4

Alright this vacation has been the monkey on my back for too long and it’s time to get crackin’ and get it done. I’d like to be able to blog about other China things before I go home in a little over a month. Things are going to get a little less detailed from here but something has gotta give!

Today started out with an amazing Swiss breakfast from the bar at our hostel and yet again another confusing bus ride, this time to the Summer Palace.

The summer palace was a place that the emperor of the Qing Xing Fu hua somethin’ or other dynasty a long time ago would take his family during the summer to escape the sweltering heat of the season from their regular abode. It’s a HUGE collection of beautiful temples, pavilions, Buddha temples and outdoor hallways surrounding a lake that must have been heaven as a summer escape. Super crowded when I was there but it was fun to imagine the royal family floating around in beautifully ornate silk robes amid cherry blossoms carried on a light breeze during their stay here.


Long hallways call for kung fu poses


And I just could NOT pass up the opportunity to dress up and pose like an empress....just too good! I heard once that the inspiration for some of Queen Amidala's outfits were Chinese dignitary inspired and I can really see it, can't you?

A long tiring couple of hours walking around amid the crowded concourses of more Asian tour groups than should be allowed to inhabit an area at a time. It’s places like that that remind me that there are a billion people in this country. Oh China. Although it had been awhile since I’d had someone ask me for a picture because I’m blonde and white and here I got a few good, solid photo attacks so that was fun.

Just LOOK at ALL THOSE ASIANS!

Beijing is a weird vacation because everything is so old that it’s all been restored restored restored and sometimes walking around I couldn’t help but think that all of it was as unauthentic and artificial as Disneyland! But there still remains the fact that it used to exist sorta like it has been re-created now for me to appreciate, and let’s face it-- if I were Chinese I would appreciate it TONS MORE. But it was all nice and fun to see:) Honest, it was!

I’m sure the night ended with more shopping. It all kind of runs together at this point but it’s not even an exaggeration to say that we ended up at the silk market every night. Even when the vendors jokingly threaten to kill you because you’re too stubborn to buy for their price, it oddly enough is not discouraging. We all have spending addictions and Beijing sure takes those and runs a 100 meter dash in under 10 seconds with them..

Long Vacation: Day 3

Rolling out of bed at 11, obviously the result of our late night of clubbin’, was sort of a damper on the day but it couldn’t be helped. We still had the same number of waking hours, right? It just wasn’t during normal daylight hours..anyway, we caught a series of confusing subways and buses to a HUGE outdoor market where I felt too over-whelmed to buy anything but helped Amanda bargain down a bag because we taught the vendors the word "zipper" hehe, we went back to the hostel and again found ourselves on a desperate search for something edible and quick before heading to an acrobat show. We were in a hurry but I wanted dumplings so I had a brilliant stroke of genius and got it “to go”..very literally.

Jiao zi in a bag! Soy sauce and everything ;) Just add chopsticks!

We rode to the acrobat show in one of those gray big van/little bus type things that have become too familiar on vacations. The show was pretty cool but it wasn’t NEARLY as intense as I hoped it would be or as all long enough for how much we paid for it but it was still good for the Beijing experience. It’s just hard when I’ve seen more impressive things at Epcot in the Chinatown there, ya know? Still though, there were some CRAZY moments. Like this!

and they had this girl who did tricks holding herself up by one hand on a teeny stand for like 3 minutes and they had one of those big metal round cages with motorcyclists riding around inside and got FIVE of them zooming around inside. Wowzas!!

After the show we made the mistake of thinking we could get ourselves to a silk and pearl market on our own if the driver let us off near a subway station--we could just find it from there. Nope. It was not to be so-- we ended up wandering around for about 2 hours. In the process we found a cool building and I snapped a couple pics.

We realized a couple minutes later that we’d stumbled onto Tiananmen Square. Oh :) A nice little bonus but we’d have to tour it another day! The subway station was shut down there and for the next two hours we wandered the streets looking for another station, trying to hail taxis, getting directions from guards who didn't actually know what they were talking about, using one of the nastiest bathrooms ever, eventually getting all of us but Tiffany, Shaw, Amanda and I in a cab headed to the silk market, wanting to pull our hair out when the few cabs we managed to hail told us they couldn’t take us where we needed to go, needing desperately to sit down, shaking my head in disbelief when Tiffany’s pants ripped and walking down the street through the mud and some turnip-looking plants to a bus stop. In hopes of preserving any sanity I had left, I started to laugh. Good and hard. And suddenly the situation wasn’t so bad anymore! Amanda and I were giggling at the weirdest things until we made it eventually to the subway and FINALLY the market.

The source of much happiness during this trip has been the turtle face. It came out for a brief moment on this weird night. Oh the joys of being on the subway and finding any way to entertain ourselves!

FINALLY at the silk market, I plummeted in energy levels even further when all of the sudden I was bombarded by the weirdest shopping experience I think must be possible in this life. Seriously, it’s hard to describe it. Imagine Satan’s minions trying to sell you a scarf. Calling to you as you innocently walk by, telling you they’ll give it to you for a low price, even grabbing at your arm sometimes as you pass. Now imagine isles and isles of booths packed as tight as sardines in a mall-type store with everything and ANYTHING you could ever want to buy as a souvenier from China and anything you could ever want from anywhere. Scarves, pearls, jade, robes, knock-off name brand stuff from Diesel, Abercrombie, Dulce and Gabbana, Versaci—bags, jeans, shoes, jackets, ANYTHING. 4 floors of that!!! Now imagine all of these minions are Chinese.

THIS is Beijing shopping.

It’s weird because they actually speak English, unlike other places we’ve been where bartering is like a silent battle of the calculator where not much is said but emotion can be implied with how forcefully you punch in the numbers or how disgustedly you look at the price they are asking. Here it’s like a game. A battle of wits and flattery and strategy and boy, that first day it was over-whelming. By the time it closed at 9 I was confused as heck and dead on my feet. Earlier we’d planned to ride the subway to the Olympic park and as tired as we were pressed on. Until we were 2 transfers away and the subways stopped running because it was too late. We went up to the street and debated what to do. Everyone wanted to go back to the hostel for the night but Debbie, Joey and I just could not give up the dream of seeing the Bird’s Nest. With the thought of “what would an Olympian do?” we set off regardless of our aching feet and pressed forward in the direction of the stadium, while doing charades of our favorite Summer olympic sports. The song "We're Coming to America" from the Hope of America program may or may have not been sung in an epic manner at this point ;)

We came to a random little plaza park area and noticed people rollerblading. How quaint, we thought. The moment exponentially grew in coolness when we noticed there were rollerblades to be rented. OH. BOY. For 5 yuan, we were convinced easily. I admit I took no thought to what diseases might plague me later in life because of this choice but was just as admittedly relieved when I was handed 2 little plastic bags to put on my feet before strapping into the blades. Chinese people are crazy but it’s good to know there are some things even THEY know have gotta happen.

So we were psyched, rollerblading to the Bird’s Nest! How cool is that?? Until we realized the park ended without making it to the stadium and we’d have to cross the street in rented rollerblades to continue. So whether or not it was allowed we crossed the street and into the unknown. I blame Joey. After wandering down a street and under a super creepy under-pass we got as far as we could go without crossing a major highway, so the quest was over for the night. Seriously awesome photo op!

Does it get any better than this?

Another really late night dragging ourselves to the hostel totally beat but once again, we’re only here once :)

Long Vacation: Day 2

We woke up to a bright, cloudless day and wondered if some kid digging a hole to China had actually made it—because it looked as if we’d made it back to central Utah! Flat land galore and miles of powerlines. Very strange. And another hour later we were in neighborhoods of low, flat houses that reminded me of Mexico. I’ve never actually been to Mexico but if I had been, that’s what I imagine it would look like. We were on the train for a couple more hours and were anxious to arrive in Beijing. We got off at the train station and the first thing we noticed—it was DRY here! Not like our humid coastal home in Southern China! Weird to have to use chapstick again but after a couple of days I was used to it. Our party of 17 herded through the train station like cattle and in our wandering eventually found the bus station that would take us to the metro. It wasn’t until we got on in a daze and settled into the crowded bus that we noticed Anna and Erin weren’t with us..so Tiffany and Shaw went back after them. The rest of us made it to the metro station (I was excited, my first time!) and timidly tried to push our way to the subway doors. We got on a crammed subway and waited for our stop. The doors opened, most of our group got off but as two girls and I elbowed our way from the other side of the train the doors closed..and we were still on it..um..kay? We weren’t too worried but we didn’t know exactly what we were going to do. We got off at the next stop and luckily one of the girl’s sister came looking and they were on the same brain wave that she found us and we went back to the Llama temple stop to go to our hostel. Up out of the station and the first thing I notice: wow, this place LOOKS Chinese. Lanterns as far as the eye can see, Chinese-designs painted on the trim of buildings, dragons guarding the entrance to every shop. This is more of the China I’ve been expecting to see for the last 3 months! Turns out it’s a touristy-pleaser type of thing, not that I’m really surprised but it’s just an interesting discovery. We checked into our awesome hostel (Anna and Erin were found, phew!) and our minds rested on what else but FOOD.


Eating Goat! It was pretty good, I was surprised.

We went on some directionless wanderings for the rest of the night up and down the street of our hostel.

This is pretty much Beijing. Lanterns. Very artificial but still fun nonetheless :)

Five girls walking around and eventually we are going to need a bathroom. Introducing the most shocking squatter I have used thus far during my stay in China. And believe me, there has been some fierce competition. (I’ve considered making a squatter blog detailing all of the despicable places I’ve been forced to..relieve myself..but then I remember that’d be nasty and no one would want to read it, and that’s why I haven’t done it ;) )

Look closely. These squatters do not have stalls or doors. Only small walls. I've become accustomed to tolerating weird experiences, and although this one was especially awkward I will admit I used it, yes, and I felt very..exposed. That’s pretty much the only word I can use to describe it. I did NOT like having an audience; I never want to have to cover myself like that from Chinese people ever again!

Anyway……..moving on!

We heard there was a park down the street where old people danced and I’m not really sure why that appealed to us but it did so we went to find it.


Beijing at nighttime, crossing a bridge


The entrance to the old people dancing park. It ended up being kind of a waste, the old people were sure dancing but it was just a little jig for exercise, and it was dark and we were dead-beat from the day but it was mindless so we liked it. We headed back to the hostel and as I started thinking about getting ready for bed someone suggested going to a club for foreigners..so we did! How’s that for being spontaneous on a vacation? I was so tired already but I figured you’re only in China once with an opportunity to go clubbing so what the heck! It was interesting--great to hear English music but it was so stuffy and crowded that it made dancing hard. So many weird people but it was a really good time with our group.

Here's a pretty bad picture but the kid in our group who took better ones got sent home so the chances of us seeing them are pretty low. But it was fun!

We dragged our feet home before the club got too crazy and slept very heavily. In hindsight it probably wasn’t the best choice to start out the vacation like that but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do :)