Quick Trip to Beijing

 

北京是一个非 常有意思的城市， 历史很多文化也不少。很多人觉得北京只有什么长城，是中国的首都，但是北京有很多其他有意思的东西。除了长城，北京的景点还有故宫，天安门广场，天坛，王府井，鸟巢，水立方，和香山。因为北京历史悠久，所以北京的文化也很丰富，比上海的多。北京的菜跟上海的菜不一样，比如说在上海很多人非常喜欢吃鸡爪，而北京人喜欢吃小虫子（蝎子，蜘蛛和蜈）。我听过了一首歌叫：“北京欢迎您”。在这首歌里，他们说：“不管远近都是客人用不客气。”这句话的意思是：不管你来自哪里，来到北京，你都是北京人的客人，他们都很热心，他们欢迎我们。去北京以前，我认为北京有点儿无聊，可是去北京旅行以后我觉得很精彩。我爱北京！

浦发立

Things stay busy here. A couple weeks ago the international students at my school were treated to a quick trip to Beijing. Our increasingly tight group of Americans, Russians, Italians, Germans, Japanese, Indonesians, North and South Koreans, Estonians and Kazakhstanis, boarded an overnight train to Beijing. Like most things in China, the train was crowded. We slept six people to a cabin on bunks that were too small for many of us. We talked, watched movies on a laptop, and fell asleep to the rocking lull of the train.

We woke up to the beautiful Beijing haze. Some were well prepared with face masks to greet the day. As we got off the train we were immediately corralled onto a tour bus. I'm not a fan of organized group tours, but going with a group of classmates made the trip fun. The German kids brought a Chinese version of a hackeysack to keep break up any boredom as the group moved from temple to temple.

First stop: the Temple of Heaven  天坛. The Temple of Heaven is where the emperor used to pray. The Temple of Heaven has a beatiful ceiling.

Next stop: Tian'an men Square 天安门广场. We ate lunch famly style with a lazy-Susan in the middle of the table, then headed to the famous Tian'an men Square. We saw the big picture of Mao and walked past his tomb, where every Tuesday and Thursday you  can see his body on display. Too bad for us, it was Wednesday. Gotta' leave some things for next time.

Tian’an men Square led us to our next stop,  故宫, or the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City was the emperor’s palace during the 明 (Ming) and 晴 (Qing) dynasties. It really is a city; when I told my host brother that we were there for two hours, he looked at me funny. I asked him if that was a long time and he said, "No, that’s way too short, you should spend days there!” Like I said, this was a "quick" trip to Beijing. I'll have to go back.

After we toured the Forbidden City, we went to a popular pedestrian mall in Beijing where some ate at McDonald’s and some had the famous Beijing roast duck. Some of us, myself included, feasted on cow stomach dumplings, scorpion and tarantula. It wasn’t the best dinner I’ve had, but it was worth giving it all a tasting. The dumplings weren’t the best dumplings I've had; the scorpion tasted like a burnt French-fry; and the tarantula just tasted like dirt. Been there. Done that. Next time I might go for the roast duck, but I'm glad I tried the market food.

Cooked tarantulas.

After ‘dinner’ we finally arrived at the hotel. Showered, rested, and planned ahead for our next adventure: the Great Wall. The bus ride to the Wall was filled with the sound of our tour guide screaming into her microphone trying to tell us about the history of Beijing. Before goint to "the wall," I really wasn't that interested in it. But once I actually climbed to the top of the highest guard tower and looked out and around I saw why it’s called great. We scuttled up almost 90 degree angle stairs and had our pictures taken with many curious Chinese people. When we stood at the top of the highest part we could see for miles around, and if it weren’t for the pollution we probably could’ve seen for more miles around. We could see the wall snaking around mountains and ridge lines for miles. Amazing! Really.

 

A clear day at the Great Wall.

After our excursion to the Great Wall we went to the Olympic park where we saw the bird’s nest and the water cube. We walked around there for a while and waited for the lights to turn on. The lights were really cool. At the head off the Olympic park there was a weird futuristic Jetsons looking building. The sky was growing pretty dark and we were getting hungry so we headed off to dinner. We were all tired so after dinner we quickly went to sleep.

Bird's Nest at night.

On the last day we woke up early to pack. The continental breakfast was especially good this morning, serving up cakes, toast, eggs, cereal and orange juice. Once again the tour guide started her screaming into the microphone, she went rambling on about Chairman Mao as we tried to nap. Our next destination was Mao’s home in Beijing. Contrary to Mao’s ideals, his house was a very traditional Chinese type of architecture one of the types you may see in a kungfu movie. After Mao’s house we went to a communist-themed restaurant where the employees would dance in praise of Chairman Mao and communism. The walls were painted with Mao quotes and old PRC propaganda. This was the first place I’ve seen so far in China that boastfully professed its love and praise for Mao.

After lunch we drove a couple hours into downtown Beijing to walk around a street market that had small shops, little cafes and vendors selling western foods. Some of the shops sold souvenirs, some sold Mao memorabilia and some just sold random things. My roommate Brady and I found a CD store and bought some Chinese reggae CDs -- an interesting twist on the genre. It was growing close to our departure time so we headed off to the train station. The train back was the same style as the train to Beijing, small, cramped but fun and exciting. This time we did not watch any movies, just stayed up and talked. The next morning we split and headed off to our host families in Shanghai.

Me and my host family earlier this fall.

Like I said, things are busy here. I'm trying to catch up on my blog and organizing photos.