I went to China for
Golden Week! I was in Beijing from May 2
nd-7
th. It was a lot of fun and I got to see so many historical places that I've always wanted to see! I met my friends Ian and
Meng who had left a few days earlier. They flew into Shanghai and made their way up to Beijing. I got there Saturday evening and had to make my way to the hostel by myself. When I bought a ticket for the bus, I thought the woman said 60 yuan, so I gave her 60 and then she gave me 4 back in change. I was really confused, but just assumed she knew what she was doing and went on my way. When I was on the bus I looked at my ticket and it said "16 yuan" ... that's right, I got ripped off... at the AIRPORT of all places. That's when I realized that I needed to be careful so it wouldn't happen again. Luckily, I was only ripped off 40 yuan which is just under $6
USD... BUT STILL, that goes a long way in China! I paid $9 for a $2 ticket. So that was my first impression of China - getting ripped off. When I got off at the stop I was supposed to, the directions that I got from the hostel website were crap and I had no idea where I was. It was also getting dark, so I just decided that I'd take a taxi from there because I was near the hostel. The 1st taxi I got, I showed the address to the guy and he looked at me like it was chicken scratch. It was written in
romanization which meant he had no idea what it said and he didn't speak any English what-so-ever. He motioned asking if I had a cell phone - I did not. I got another cab driver who, surprise, couldn't read
romanization either. This time I motioned to ask him if he had a cell phone. He reluctantly pulled one out of his pocket and I had him call the hostel to ask for directions. When we got there, the fare was 10 yuan ($1.50). I handed him a 100 yuan bill and he was really sketchy giving me my change. I wasn't about to get ripped off again so I just sat there until I had 90 yuan in my hand. So my first impressions of China were - a) Chinese people will rip you off if they have the chance, and b) they can't speak English... at all. These impressions held true for the remainder of my time in China.
After I met up with Ian and
Meng, we went out dancing with one of
Meng's friends who is studying in Beijing. It was a pretty fun night and we didn't make it back to our hostel until 6am! Even though we didn't get back until the morning, we all managed to head out Sunday before noon in order to do some sightseeing! We made our way to Tienanmen Square and from there walked the entire length of the Forbidden City. It was really exhausting, but really cool! We went to this really good restaurant afterwards and wandered around the city for a little bit before making our way back to the hostel.
We took a day trip to the GREAT WALL OF CHINA on Monday! I think seeing the Great Wall of China was #1 on my "list of things to do while living in Asia." There are a couple different parts of the Wall that you can go to - a super touristy part, a less touristy part, and a part that hardly anyone goes to. We chose the less touristy part. It was really cool to be there! You have to hike up pretty far just to get to the Wall. There's actually a cable car (more like a ski lift) that you could pay to
take up there, but we chose to hike up there. Once you're on the Wall, you can walk around - but it's REALLY tiring. I think the entire wall is just comprised of steps... steep, uneven steps. You are either climbing up steps, or climbing down steps. It was hard work! We got to a section of the Wall that had a "no trespassing beyond this point" sign... but we went past it anyway because one of the tour guides told us that it was
ok and nobody would be up there to stop us. It was basically just a really overgrown portion of the wall that was kind of crumbling. It was cool, though!
When we got back to Beijing, we rested for a little bit and then made our way to the night market! I
absolutely love night markets and this one didn't let me down. They were selling all kinds of WEIRD food - star fish, scorpions, sea horse, and tons of other weird bugs! The only thing weird that I ate was scorpions. That's right, fried scorpions! They were actually really good! One of
Beijing's specialties is candied fruit. I tasted some of
Meng's and it was pretty good. After the night market we went to an area of Beijing where there are 2 GIANT
man made lakes. The area is really cool! There's a park and there are also a lot of bars. The nightlife was really nice. They have couches that you can sit on outside most of the bars along the lake and there was a lot of live music. It was nice.
Tuesday, we took a trip to the Summer Palace. It was pretty big. Nice, but big. We wandered around there for a few hours and then made our way to the 2008 Olympic Stadium! The Stadium was HUGE! Really cool architecture. Right next to the National Stadium is the Aquatics Center - where Michael Phelps won his
8(?) gold medals last summer. The Aquatics Center has REALLY cool architecture and it looks especially cool at night. We only had time to go inside the National Stadium because the Aquatics Center was closed by the time we went over there. After the Olympic Stadium, we met up with
Meng's friend again and s
he took us to a really fancy restaurant that is famous for the best Beijing Duck in Beijing. The food was EXCELLENT. We each ended up paying about 150 yuan - which is quite expensive for China... but when converted to
USD... that's only about $22. A fancy meal at a famous restaurant for only $22. Not too bad. After dinner, Ian and I made our way back to the Olympic Stadium so we could see it lit up at night. The Stadium wasn't lit up for some reason, but the Aquatics Center was and it was really cool!
Wednesday was my last full day in Beijing.
Meng and I really wanted to go inside the
Aquatics Center, so we made our way back over there and it was
definitely worth it! After we saw all we could of the Aquatics Center, we made our way to the other side of the city - to the Temple of Heaven. I'd seen it in a lot of pictures and postcards and decided it was something I wanted
to see in person. It was cool. The park was really big (just like everything else in China). We saw the main attractions and then took a taxi to the Silk Market - which was one of our "have to do in Beijing" things. I don't know what it is, but there is just something about markets that I really love. Anyway, the Silk Market is famous because this is where you go in Beijing to shop and bargain for really cheap, authentic-looking, knock off name brand items. Clothes, DVDs, electronics,
jewelry, handbags, you name it - they've got it. The thing about
th
is market that makes it unique is that it is all indoors - like a shopping center type of building. There are the clothing floors, the handbag floors, the electronic floors, and of course the silk floor. I was really lucky to have
Meng with me because she speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese - that instantly knocks down the price and they she'd bargain for me from there. It was pretty fun! I bought a really cool
Custo shirt for 50 yuan and a Louis
Vuitton wallet for REALLY cheap (it's fake, but still!). I don't really care about name brands too much, but it's a cool wallet... and it was cheap! Luckily I didn't didn't have that much cash left on me (I actually ended up borrowing some from
Meng) - or else I REALLY would've done some major shopping. I
could have done some nice early Christmas shopping! Anyway, after the market we made our way back to the hostel to rest for a bit before going out dancing one last time in Beijing. It was a really fun night! I got up early and left for the airport Thursday morning.
My trip to Beijing was really great and I'm glad I finally made it to China! I would've liked to have seen another city in China, but I didn't have the time because I had to work on Friday. Beijing was at the top of my list for China and I definitely recommend it. I think what I had
envisioned before going was a China 5 years before the Olympics. You can definitely tell that a lot had been done in order to get ready for the 2008 Olympics. There were a lot of new little trees, an entirely new subway line, etc. It's really hard to see where the local people live because it's all behind walls. I think those walls were put up for the Olympics because the government didn't want tourists to see how the local people live... because it's a lower economic level than most developed countries. The few doors that led to behind the walls were almost always closed, but I did see a few doors that were open and had a peek inside. I saw small alley ways and very cramped living spaces. I didn't go in though... because I don't think that would've been appropriate... and probably not allowed either. Also, I got online at the hostel and typed in www.youtube.com to see what came up - it's blocked. So that's the sum up of my trip to China. Here are more pictures if you want to check them out!
On Saturday, I took the train north through the prefecture and ended up on the other coast - in Nagato City (which touches the Sea of Japan). Nagato is a very big, very rural, very spread out city. It's really pretty. I went with Meng and we were in search of 1 shrine in particular. It's a "fertility" shrine that we had heard about. I won't post pictures on here of the shrine itself... but if you want to see them, then ask and I might email them to you or something. When we got to Nagato station, we randomly ran into another JET who lives up around that area. He's actually from Indiana, too. Anyway, he came along and it was a nice afternoon. Here are some non-shrine pictures that show just how rural Nagato is. I really liked the peace and quiet.
