Chiner

          We made it to Beijing and back. We were there for 5 days, and it was... an experience.  Just Anthony, Greta, and I went on this excursion together.  The trip started off wonderfully, upgraded seats to Business Class, thanks to Anthony's peanut allergies!  It went slightly downhill from the flight, and over the course of the next few days was very up and down. People were not as nice as they are in Taiwan, and I know it's my fault for not speaking Chinese, but it seemed like no one spoke English, or at least didn't want to speak English to us, which made it difficult to find anything on our own.  All the taxi drivers pretended not to know where our hotel was or any address that we showed them and tried to make us pay triple for a ride.  Such is traveling sometimes.  Oh and it was much colder than I had anticipated! I'm not used to this -13 degree (C) weather right now, with strong winds, and walking around outside all day, brrr! Thank goodness we had booked tours to take us to see many of the sights during the day.  A 3 day tour, lasting from 8am-5 pm each day was $116 US, including lunch!  What a score.  The tours were fun and the guides gave us a lot of information.  Like that they call China "Chiner," not on purpose of course.  So much that it's hard to recall all of it while browsing through my photos. Good thing for the internet, eh?
     We arrived in Beijing Sunday night so we didn't do too much, just walked around a bit and heard toooonnss of fireworks.  It was Chinese New Year's Eve after all.
       The first day of the tour we were in a little van with the 3 of us and only 1 other person, plus the driver and our guide, a lady.  The other person was a Korean guy, who was raised in Canada, that was in China for the holiday on a break from teaching English in South Korea.  What a chain.

Entering the site. 

Day 1.1  Ming Tombs
  This holds 13 tombs of Emperor's from the Ming Dynasty.  We left early and were really the only tourists there.  Groups started to arrive when we were on our way out.

A tree growing out of the wall

The slope down to the tombs, this is actually the exit. 

Where the coffin of the Emperor should have been, I forget why
it isn't there.  That's money that people threw there for him. 

9 nails across and up/down, lucky number for the
Emperor!  8 is the lucky number for commoners. 

Throne for the Emperor with side seats for people who wanted
to speak with him. 

Looking down the hall, with the diamond shaped entrance. 

Part of the original wall preserved.  They didn't have cement back then, so they made it out of sticky rice and dirt!

Exit doors, 9 nails again

Leaving the Tombs area 

The Emperor's belt made of jade. Wouldn't that cause his pants to fall, not stay up? Jade is really heavy!

What the money used to look like. That's why dumplings are now shaped like this, to resemble money pieces

The Emperor's crown.  Look, Anthony's wearing it!

Day 1.2 Jade Factory
Of course being with a group tour, they make you stop at these overpriced factories that they get paid to bring you to.  They were all interesting to see how things are made, though.

This ship is made entirely carved from jade. Freaking incredible!  It took 5 years to finish, with a price tag of 600,000 ish Yuan. 

Many statues and jewelry to see. 

Day 1.3 The Great Wall

The reason our group was so small the first day is because we chose to visit a different part of the Great Wall.  The 2nd day we were with a larger group, that had all been together the 1st day as well and did the same things as us, just a different stop at the Great Wall. We went to Mutianyu, almost an hour outside of Beijing, but there were hardly any people there, so no crowded groups to maneuver around.  The others went to Badaling, the most popular sight, closest to the city, but full of people.  They said it was insanely busy there. On the way up to the wall, we stopped for lunch in a little town/cluster of buildings. The bad thing about going to this location of the Great Wall was the bus trip up into the winding mountains, I starting feeling very car sick, and at some points both feared that I would throw up on myself, or that the van was going to plunge off the side of the road. The driver was crazy.

Riding the cable cars up to the wall. Rather frightening. 

We made it up alive! 

The treacherous "hike" up/down the wall. Quite tiring. 

Gorgeous.  Probably even better in the summer when it's lush and green. 

That track you see under the cable cars? It's the toboggan course we took down form the wall.  Just like this sign here says, tobogganing is so simple! 

A man at the end of the toboggan track, of course he later charged you for pictures. 

Anthony really wanted to hold the sword. 

Day 1.4 Fresh Water Pearl Factory

   They split open this oyster shell, around 20 pearls inside, maybe 3 or 4 that can actually be used to make jewelry and sell.  

Reminds me of the pigs we dissected in Anatomy. 

Day 1.5 Chinese Acrobat Show
  This show was incredible.  Many different acts, one after the other, showcasing the talents of a lot of dancers and performers!

He added chair by chair, stopping to do a handstand at each level.

They are holding on to the pole with their mouths on a spigot thing sticking out. OUCH

She is balancing, on his head, with one foot!

10 girls, 1 bicycle

There were 6 guys on motorcycles driving around in this ball. I was afraid to watch!

  Day 1.5 Chinese Cooking Class
   Greta found this online.  A woman holds these classes in a section of her house that is so cute and looks just like the cooking things I've seen on TV. We learned how to make traditional Chinese dumplings! Including the dough and how to fold them, it was a lot of fun, and then we got to eat it all at the end.  About 10 people in the class.  Sadly I didn't take any picture during the process, because my hands were busy and full of dough and such.  Greta took some at the end here.

Boiling in the wok 

Folded, sealed and ready for the wok 

Colorful and delicious!

Greta about to enjoy some dumplings!

Day 2.1  Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City
    The walk through this whole area was very long, and it was early early again, but this time tons of people were already there.  It was freezing out, which made the tour through a bit less enjoyable than it may have been, but that's what you get for going to Beijing in January!

The axis of the city. Everything was built in a straight line according to this axis. 

In the square, behind us is the entrance to the Forbidden City 

One of the palaces in the Forbidden City. They all had the same design, it's hard to tell now what was what. But I think this is where the Emperor slept.

Huge "wells" of water in heated pots like this everywhere, in case of a fire.  Of course they needed to be heated because if not the water would freeze and thus be of no use if a fire broke out. 

A bridge

Cool stone formation with a hut on top

Greta is in front of what would be the moat around the Forbidden City 

Day 2.2  The Silk Factory
    We saw the stages of a silk worm, how they find the cocoons, pull apart the thread(s) and weave it or make blankets.

Day 2.3  Temple of Heaven
    This is bigger than the Forbidden City, and was built to use for sacrifices to heaven.  Emperor's considered themselves son's of God, so they didn't want to upset Him by building their palace area bigger than this place. Built in 1420 like most of the palatial places we visited.

The entrance 

Walk-way into the park area

Hundreds of red and gold lanterns hanging, the colors of luck.

My goober face all bundled up and the Imperial Vault of Heaven, the centerpiece

Check out that guy giving Anthony the crazy eye face

The Echo wall

Anthony yelling to the wall, we didn't hear much. Maybe we did it wrong.

Day 2.4 The Summer Palace
    On/near Longevity Hill and Kunming Lake.  Clearly meant for the summer time, with a beautiful blooming garden, in the winter still a wonderful view of the lake and a pretty place to walk around.

Frozen water

Parts of the lake weren't frozen, and there were ducks swimming in it

The outdoor corridor

Built so the Emperor's mother could sit out to read and look at the lake even on rainy days. How sweet.

A big arch

Day 2.5 Tea House

  We went to a tea house to sample and learn about different kinds of tea. They were delicious and a lot of people in our group actually bought stuff.  It wasn't too badly priced. I get plenty of tea in Taiwan though, so I didn't get any.  A big selling point was the "peepee boy" that came free with any purchase. A naked little clay boy that you pour water over his head and only if the water is 85 degrees C or higher it will shoot out of his penis, if it isn't hot enough, no pee stream.

      After the tour ended, we wanted to go eat duck somewhere.  Beijing is famous for it's Peking Duck. We tried to ask the hotel, and the concierge didn't speak English, he thought we wanted to eat dog.  No, no, duck, quack! Someone else had to translate. He wrote down the name of a restaurant in Chinese on a card for us, went outside to get us a taxi and after 5 minutes said that no taxi's could come down the street. Uhhh, ok? So we went in search of one ourselves, well none wanted to stop for us, or if they did stop to drop people off they shook their head and said "no" when we tried to get in.  After finnallly getting in one, the driver had no idea where the restaurant was, or so I gathered. We remembered seeing a duck place near a subway stop we had been at before, so we took our chances and went there.  It turned out to be a cool place, aside from all the cigarettes and ash all over the floor, smoking is allowed in, oh everywhere in China.  But it was good, and cheap.  Until the end when Anthony's lips started getting full of hives and itchy. eieeeee! I gave him some Benadryl and we left to find a taxi to get back the hotel quickly if it got worse.  Luckily he said it was ok, and we found a taxi. Even after showing him the Chinese address, from a card from the hotel, he claimed he didn't know where he was going.  Just trying to drive us all over to get more money! We had to try and give him directions on how to get back to the hotel, he was angry and not very kind.


Day 3.1  The Lama Temple
   Five big courtyards and many side rooms, this temple holds Buddhist and Tibetan things. Since it was right after CNE that we went here, many people were praying and giving incense to insure their good luck for the year.

Enter Lama Temple 

You weren't allowed to take photos inside the temples I guess, I took one of this gigantic statue before being yelled at "no photo!"

So much incense and smoke everywhere

Day 3.2 Rickshaw Tour
  We got bicycled around the back Hutong alley's of Beijing in a rickshaw. Yea, not such a good idea to sit in an open carriage when it's windy and cold, but they couldn't bike too quickly, and they gave us a blanket. The Hutong is narrow streets that wrap and wind around where the commoners live. It would be quite easy to get lost back there I believe.  The tour wasn't too long, and we had a couple stops to see some specials points.

In the rickshaw ready for business

Faster, faster, faster!

So this door is the entrance to one house, with a big step. 2  reasons for this huge step, 1. so if the sewers back up, no floods in the house, 2. Because the step is so high it requires you to bend your knee to get over it, zombies clearly lack knees so no zombies may enter. Seriously.

We went inside an old home to see what it looks like, with permission of course, and they carry this. Snakes festering in white wine, used for medicinal purposes of course. 

Day 3.3  Traditional Chinese Doctor

   They took us to this clinic to learn about the way Chinese people heal the body.  They believe in a ying yang balance even within the body.  The two elements are the liver and kidney, all other organs are related to one of the two.  Like ears, hair, bones if something is wrong with them, it's because something is wrong with your kidney's, so if you repair your kidney's, you're good.  They also focus more on preventive measure rather than fixing an ailment so much, if something gets bad then they use Western medicine.  So the Chinese Doctor doesn't use any instruments to "diagnose" you.  He only looks at you, observes, asks a few questions like how old you are, looks at your tongue, and feels your pulse on both wrists.  Then they can make an analysis of what would be going on inside.  I was actually pretty impressed as he went to Greta and did the steps, when he was done he said "You have frequent migraines don't you?" If you know Greta you know that she ALWAYS gets migraines, and has special medicine for them.  The doctor says he could tell just from feeling her blood. A little freaky.  Me?  He just said, oh you're young and healthy. No imbalances! 

Day 3.4  Panda House at the Zoo

   We made a brief stop at the zoo, just to see the Panda Bears.  We saw 5 pandas total.  First just a big one alone inside, then 2 little cubs playing and wrestling together, they were so cute!  Then outside there was a really old and deprecate looking one, the tour guide rushed us past him and said "he no beautiful, not look here." I felt sad for that mr. panda.  Then another big one outside that was pacing back and forth.  Pandas are so dirty, it looks like they have poo smeared all over their backsides, which really may be the case.  Can you tell which one is the old one?

Day 3.5 The Bird's Nest and Water Cube

    This is the site of the Olympic Games in 2008!  Which I learned Beijing pushed really hard to get the Olympics on 8.8.08 because if you were paying attention before you know that 8 is the lucky number for common people.  We went with the tour during the day, and it was cool to see, but another guy on our tour said the time to go was at night to see it all lit up.  We took pictures during the day there, and then went back the next night to see the lights, so we visited here twice.  Since inside the cube is tons of water, and it's actually a water park now, called "Happy Magic Water Cube Water Park," it requires a lot of maintenance and upkeep, 10 Million a year!! Eeeesh. It's a big tourist hit though, so maybe worth it? Probably not.  

Bird's Nest during the day

Water cube in daylight

It cycles through a bunch of colors

An Olympic tower in the area

Bam turn out the lights!

Woooo!

Day 3.6  The Legend of Kung Fu Show 

    Our tour guide said this Kung Fu show was not to be missed, and it was rated as the top show to see in Beijing as it includes dancing, singing, a story line, cool shit to see.  We decided to go! It was an interesting sho.  It's about the story of a monk growing up in the lifestyle of Kung Fu and the trials he goes through, you see a bunch of guys break iron rods over their own heads.. pretty intense!  

After the Kung Fu show, the tour guide had recommended a restaurant down the street from the Theater to get some good duck at.  We walked there, and they told us "no seats" we tried to ask how long, and they just kept saying "no seat, no seat." Well we wouldn't be eating there, so we found a taxi back at the theater and tried the card from our hotel again, and he seemed to know where it was.  After driving for a little while he stopped on a busy street with many restaurants and said "around here." He didn't have a meter running, but all other taxi's say a base of 10 Yuan and only 2 Yuan per km, and we had taken other taxi's, they are very cheap for an in town short trip.  He tried to tell us 60 Yuan. Yea right! "No, no, no" I said, "I give you 20." "20 each!" He spat back. "No, 20." He kept yelling about 60. Well I put 20 on the front seat and we all got out with him still yelling.  I'm over being scammed by the taxi drivers! He starting honking and still yelling while we just walked down the street with people yelling. Whatev's man! Turns out alll the restaurants we checked in this area also had long waits, it was supper time I suppose, so we walked around until we came across a subway and decided to stay away from taxi's.  We went to a stop with a big mall, one of the largest in Asia apparently, walked around in there a bit before getting frustrated again with not being able to buy any food from the food area because you needed some special card that we lacked and had no idea how to get.  Anthony was able to get something from a Vietnamese place, but Greta and I were ignored :( 

Day 4  SHOPPING and Snack Street

  Greta and I got up early to go shopping at the Silk Market.  They do sell silk, but also loads of other crap as well.  It's a huge warehouse with 7 floors and each floor has a different "specialty."  Pretty much it's like an outside market, just inside where people are trying to sell you everything.  And everything is a knock-off, but claims to be the real thing, and super cheap.  They have Coach, Prada, Gucci, North Face all sorts of "name brand" things.  But you have to work to get it super cheap.  Here you must bargain, it was kinda fun, but exhausting as well.  Like some rings I got, they tried to say 600 Yuan for 2, that's like 100 US.  I offer 30 Yuan.  They laugh, "Oh beautiful girl you joke." Then you say ok and walk away.  Ok 300 they say, .... 35 I offer. No no too low, be serious. 35 again.  ok ok 100. 40. back and forth until you reach an agreement.  I ended up at 50. Under 10 US.  As we walked through the "stores" they constantly yell "pretty lady, beautiful girl, come in and look, just look!" Some people get angry if the buyer is offering too low, like at a watch stand next to me, some foreign guy was apparently being rude but offering way to low. The woman working starts yelling "fuck you" over and over, but in  really bad English with a Chinese accent so it's all stuttery. 

Hello ceiling! 

    One lady I bought something from spoke English pretty well and was asking what we were doing in China.  We told her we were teachers in Taiwan, her response, "Oh, yes, a nice city." ... Taiwan is a country now, dear! 

    We shopped for 4-5 hours then went back to meet up with Anthony who spent the morning at a museum.  We made reservations at a restaurant that is rated the number one place to eat Duck at in Beijing, we still wanted to get some of this good duck!  The place was really impressive, the menu's were on iPad's and the chair's felt like thrones!  

They brought out the duck and carved it in front of us!

We passed the "duck room" on the way out. 

      After eating we took a walk down "snack street" where they sell all types of food from noodles and dumplings to fried scorpions, seahorses, starfish, worms, beetles, and then there's some fruit.  So yucky to look at! When they would pull the scorpions out of the fryer on the sticks and set them out, you could see them still wiggling around! Ahhhh. Greta and I wanted to try something different, but we couldn't bring ourselves to eat bugs, that can't be good for you! We went with a starfish, are you even supposed to eat them? Well we did, not the whole thing, but we tried it. It tasted weird.  Pretty fishy. Crunchy. Anthony couldn't have any because he might be allergic to the sauce on it... right! :) 

Hello Snack Street, and all these people 

Next, hello ick things on a stick 

What is that, a flying lizard?!

Good things on a stick, fruit!

Yum Yum!

Some more traditional foods 

Big, hairy, spiders. Black scorpions. 

Long worms, beetles.

My dessert!

It's... weird

This was the end of our trip.  Our flight left early the next morning, and we were running late as checking out of the hotel turned into a fiasco because "I didn't drink the 6 dollar bottle of water!" They kept saying it was open, well no one touched it, and I'm not paying for it! Sooo happy to be back home in Taiwan! Our taxi driver from the airport to our apartment was so nice, making an effort to speak with us in English, not trying to over charge and give us the run-around. The general consensus is, you've got some cool shit, but Boo China!