I’m back now in Yongzhou after almost 2 weeks of traveling in Beijing and then Xiamen. Unfortunately I am currently locked out of my apartment because Twinkle moved in with me right before I left for vacation and then went on vacation while I was gone and took my key with her, so Madi is being a saint and putting up with me. Since I teach senior grade 2 and my students were testing these past couple weeks, I had the chance to travel a bit. I left June 2nd on a bus to Changsha, and then on the way from the bus station to the airport I got a ride with a really nice cab driver who I got to practice my Chinese with, and I once again realized how bad I am at the language. If I spent another 4 months here in China, I think I’d be quite good, so it’s sad that right as I’m getting the hang of it and things are coming more and more quickly I only have a few weeks left. The taxi driver not only took me to the airport, but took my bag in for me and told me where to go. I waited in the airport for a few hours and practiced more Chinese with a couple nice old ladies who kept feeding me Lichees, which are a very good fruit here, and then took my plane from Changsha to Beijing (there isn’t a big enough airport in Yongzhou). On the plane I sat next to a lady who spoke English well and we had a wonderful conversation on the cultural habits and manners between America and China, which, being a sociologist, made me quite happy.
I met my cousin Robert “Tate” at the airport (we arrived in Beijing about the same time) with some awesome friends: River, his Chinese mother who is a skin specialist in Harbin, her daughter Betty, and Wang, a large figure in the Bank of China, and a friend of Wang’s who builds bridges. Because all of Tate’s friends have lots of money and love to show off by paying for everything, I hardly spent any money in Beijing, which is a huge blessing to me. Every day we were driven around by Wang and his friend, and when we would go to a place, they would park the car, get out and buy our tickets, and then leave us to enjoy it all while they went off and did their own things. I got a quite a bit of Chinese practice with Tate and the others. I just had to adjust to the northern dialects of mandarin and all their ‘r’s. They treated us to the nicest restaurants, we stayed in a hotel half the nights, and I felt completely spoiled. Oh I love Beijing! It’s cool to be around people who will fight you to the ground to be the one to pay the pricy bill to show off. Haha, it’s quite the scene.
The first full day in Beijing River, Betty, Tate, and I went to the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Temple of Heaven, and the Olympic Stadium and surroundings from the 2002 Olympics. It was a very busy day. Then we went out to eat with some friends of River. I had a lot of food in Beijing like the Chinese food in the states. The Chinese food in Hunan is not like the Chinese food in America, but this was more similar, and I ate a lot in Beijing. They didn’t just let us eat until we were full. They piled food onto our plates if we didn’t keep helping ourselves (and sometimes they did that anyway), until the food was about gone or we stuck out our stomachs far enough to make a food baby in protest. Oh it was so delicious. Hot Pot, Peking Duck, Kung Pao Chicken, all sorts of food and all so good. The second day we went to the Beijing Zoo just to see the pandas, which was way cool, and then to the Summer Palace, which is HUGE! We took a paddle boat on lake in the center of it, went to a Buddhist Temple, some amazing sights around it, took a boat down a main part of the city, saw the giant marble ship, and it was super fun. We were once again very tired at the end of the day, but then Tate and I went to visit the Temple of Earth and then to dinner with his old high school teacher and her fiancé. THAT was a blast! We got along fantastically. Their senses of humor and mannerisms are just so much fun. We laughed and joked and had a great time altogether for a good 4+ hours and then they drove us back to our hotel. Day 3 we went to the Great Wall! Oh wow, it is spectacular! Tate and I, being the daredevils we are, ran the great wall (which, if you’ve ever been, know it’s pretty dangerous), but it was so much fun! We climbed up off-limits parts of the wall and beyond where we were supposed to, but the views only got better and better, and the parts that were off-limits were in ruins, and you can’t take Nikki away from her love for archaeology, so we had the time of our lives up there. I would go to Beijing again and again if only to see the great wall-it is THAT amazing! It had to be one of the most memorable experiences here in China for me. Then we went to the place they have Dragon Boat Races and enjoyed the sunset, skipped some rocks, and took off our shoes and let the little fish nibble on our toes and then freak out. Oh I love Beijing! We then went to a fancy shmancy restaurant and had our last meal together as a group. I’m going to miss them all.
The next day, Sunday, Wang’s driver took Tate, River, and Betty to the airport back to Harbin, and then took me to the building where the Beijing Branches meet for church. It was awesome to be on the live side of the virtual branch, and I got to see my friends from Longhui and Shuangpai and spend some time with the Lewis family. Their house is SO posh for China, and we ate with forks (I am so bad with those now)-we had enchiladas, fajitas, CHEESE, brownies, cookies, ice cream, oh I could’ve died happy right then and there. The Lewis’ were excited to hear about David and then made me get on skype with him so they could meet him, so many of my Chinese foreigner friends have met him now and everyone out here approves. : ) I got to sleep at the Lewis’ and then President Lewis and I went to the airport and each flew out to different locations, and I was off onto the second half of my vacation: Xiamen.
Pic 1: Beijing Sunset
Pic 2: Beijing
Pic 3-6 The Forbidden City
Pic 7-8: The Front Gate of the Forbidden City
Pic 9-10: Tiananmen Square
Pic 11: Some cool church
Pic 12-14: An art gallery on Tiananmen
Pic 15: The Dragon and Phoenix are found everywhere in the big old cities and symbolize unity between man and woman.
Pic 16: Beijing
Pic 17: This is the biggest pile of trash I found in Beijing. It shocked me. Usually they are entire court yards full.
Pic 18: The Temple of Heaven
Pic 19: Tate in front of the Temple
Pic 20-21: More Temple of Heaven
Pic 22: Olympic Stadium
Pic 23: Olympic Swimming building
Pic 24-25: The Olympic Area
Pic 26: Out to eat with River's friends
Pic 27: Tate in River's friend's piano shoppe
Pic 28: A panda breathing hard after climbing the ladder TO the obstacle course. There is NOW...a level zero.
Pic 29: Isn't he cute?
Pic 30: Smiling :)
Pic 31: Wrestling pandas!
Pic 32: Summer Palace
Pic 33: Dragon and Phoenix again
Pic 34 + 36: Summer Palace
Pic 35: Our paddle boat (I was driving)
Pic 36-40: Summer Palace Temple
Pic 41: The Marble Ship
Pic 42: Riding down the Venice of the Palace
43-44: More Summer Palace Pics
Pic 45-49: Temple of Earth. It's very "down to earth" and all about herbs and plants that help benefit man and points of focus and maps of the development of man. Very cool place.
Pic 51-55 : The Great Wall
Pic 56: Dragon Boats
Pic 57: Dragon Boat Sunset
Pic 58-59: Fancy Restaurant Toilets
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