China China China... part I: Beijing

Here is a recap of my 5 day adventure to Mainland China,  Beijing & Shanghai.  I am breaking the trip into two posts,  this first one being my time in Beijing, the capital of China, and the heart of Chinese nationalism.  This has been one crazy trip.  China is a lot different than Hong Kong.  Compared to Hong Kong, pretty much nobody speaks english (and those who do are going to try and scam you), and my Chinese isn't nearly good enough to survive haha.  I went alone, but luckily I had friends of a friend in both cities, to show me around for a bit (Rong's friends, for those who have read my earlier posts, she was a great help in planning this trip).  And so the story begins...

My trip started off with me heading to the airport, leaving campus at 7:30 AM to catch and 11:30 AM flight.  I took the usual bus to Hang Hau, and one of my local friends, Gabriel, showed me where the bus was to get to the airport.  The bus takes over an hour to get to the airport, but its a lot cheaper than taking a taxi, and less busy than the MTR since I had an extra bag.  I made it to the airport, and through security without problems and waited at my gate.

 My flight was not nonstop to Beijing, so I had to get off in Nanchang.  I know absolutely nothing about this city, but it looked kinda undeveloped from the plane.  I got off and had to go through immigration to transfer to my domestic flight to Beijing.  It was kinda scary being the only foreigner.  I was stopped by a group of Chinese soldiers questioning me where I was going, and then they took me into some back room and I'm thinking oh my god, whats going on.  But they just wanted to take my picture for their records, and they were really nice about it.  I passed through immigration, and after trying to understand directions in Chinese from a security guard, found my way to my connecting flight to Beijing.
When I arrived in Beijing at around 6:00 PM, they sky was very cloudy, the air looked dirty as I expected, and it was cold.  Rong's friend, Sisy was supposed to meeting me there.  I had communicated with her through email before leaving.  I made it to the exit and there were many Chinese people holding signs for arrivals.  I saw the one that said REEVE, there was Sisy and her friends Jessica and Feng Na.  Sisy spoke english well enough for me to understand most of the time, and her friends didn't really speak english.  We got on a bus and went into the city.  We then took a taxi to my hostel, and I checked in.  My hostel was on this pretty creepy back street.



After dropping off my things, we headed out to Houhai for some "snacks" for dinner.  Sisy kept saying "snacks" but the whole time I thought she was saying "snakes".  We got to the restaurant, which you could walk around and look at all the different food, and the whole time I'm wondering which one is snakes.  I asked her "which one is snake" and she said "they're all snakes!".  I just let them order a bunch of different "snakes" and then I realized once we got our food that she meant "snacks".  lol.   Anyway the snakes were very good!

 Feng Na, Jessica                                               Sisy          

This is a chinese burger, I dropped this so many times...

After eating, we headed out to walk around Houhai Lake.  All the little buildings were lit up like Christmas.  I tried a few more snacks, like this candy coated fruit on a stick and some kind of yogurt in a jar.  There were so many live music/open mic bars along the lake, one after the other.  At each one, there were a couple young chinese people trying to get you to come in and spend money.  I wish I had had time to stay a bit and play at one of these bars.

Afterwards, they took me back to my hostel.  We planned to get up early the next morning to go to the Great wall.  When I arrived at my hostel I saw the following sign.  Though this didn't happen while I was in Beijing, this sign is very important for my next post in Shanghai.  I've also read about this in the traveler guide.  I still kinda didn't believe it though, but oh was I wrong haha.

 

I woke up the next morning at 6AM.  God was it hard to get up that early.  I was supposed to meet Sisy and her friends at the subway station at 630, so I had some time to wake up a bit.  We got in the taxi and headed to the bus station to take the bus to nearby the section of the great wall we planned to go, Jinshanling.  We got some Mcdonalds just before haha, yes they have mcdonalds EVERYWHERE.  Although Sisy and her friends are from Beijing, they have never been to Jinshanling.

We got off the bus and then got a ride from an unregistered taxi driver.  Not advisable to people who don't speak chinese or who aren't local for that matter,  but luckily I was with local friends who did all the talking.  The driver took us to Jinshanling, which was pretty far away from the city.  It took us at least 2 hours to get there including the bus.  Our driver seemed like a nice guy, and he stopped to buy some apples on the side of the road along the way.  Oh yeah here's a tip, NOTE: We stopped at a public restroom on the way.  Always bring some sort of tissue paper with you.  Many bathrooms in china do not provide any.  ....many bathrooms in china also don't have sitting toilets either.

Finally we reached Jinshanling.  Words can't really describe how magnificent the sights were.  Jinshanling is a lot less crowded than other parts of the great wall, such as Badaling.  It was a great experience to see the Great Wall in more of its natural and less commercialized and restored state.  Though much of the Great wall is restored and renovated.  Here are many pictures of us all at the Jinshanling Great Wall, (Jīnshānlǐng Chángchéng). 

 

  

 

After walking the great wall, we headed back to the city for dinner.  Traffic was pretty bad and it took us over 3 hours to get back.  It was cold and cloudy again back in the city.  We headed to DaDong restaurant, well known for their Beijing duck.  We ordered many different things, and the food was delicious.  Afterwards, I said goodbye to my new friends, and thanked them for all they did for me the past two days, showing me around and everything.  My time with them was probably the best time during my whole trip.  They were super nice, especially Sisy, who was very helpful in giving me transportation instructions, and lending me her scarf haha, since it was freezing.

 

The next day, (Sunday), I was on my own.  Sisy had told me that it was supposed to rain all day, and sure enough it did.  Sisy took me out to buy a jacket the night before.  In the store, it looked cool.  but now I'm pretty sure its a girl jacket, and I probably got somewhat ripped off for it.  Either way, it kept me warm and it had nice pockets, so it was functional.  Originally I had planned to wake up at 6 again to see the flag raising at Tiananmen Square, but that didn't happen.  I took some photos of my hostel that morning, the Happy Dragon Hostel.

I stayed in a 4 person bunkbed room.  All bunkbed rooms shared a coed bathroom, with two toilets, 3 showers, and 4 sinks.  Technically had to walk outside in the courtyard to get to the bathroom.  The bar was in the middle of the courtyard and was pretty neat with an upstairs as well.

Made it to Tienanmen Square at about 10AM.  I also saw Mao's Mausoleum, which was quite interesting.  I had to store my bag and camera in a locker, and wait in line with many Chinese people.  We entered the mausoleum two by two and had to be very quiet.  First we saw a memorial for Leader Mao, with his big picture and flowers around it.  Then we walked into another room where we saw his supposed embalmed body.  Pretty cool i guess to see a dictator's preserved body.  Wish I could have taken a picture.  I left the Mausoleum and walked around Tienanmen Square some more, and a famous market just south of the square.  

Monument to the People's Heroes

Great Hall of People

Zhengyang Gate

Mao Zedong Memorial Hall

 

Communist Reeve picture.  (This picture was really hard to get taken.  I had written down how to ask to get a photo in chinese, and so I decided to ask a group of chinese people. but it just launched into a big confusing mess and I had no clue what they were saying.  Still got a photo though.)

 

 

  

And so then it was off to the Forbidden City.  It was still raining a lot at this point, and also cold, so not really the best time to see the Forbidden City, but I was leaving that day so I went ahead.  Here are pictures of it.  It just kinda seems like the same thing over and over again, but it was still pretty cool.  I payed for a auto guide gps device with a headset that told about the sights.  The second I walked in some girl came up to me saying she could be my guide and tell better stories.  I didn't trust her, and said no I'm going to walk around by myself kbye.  I went into some of the museums mostly because I was freezing and wanted to go inside.  Here's the pictures,  not that great in the rain, but you get the idea.

 

Hobbit holes in China

 

 

 

After, I left the Forbidden City, it started getting darker, colder, and more rain.  I was going to look for a street market recommended to me by some fellow exchange students, but I just kinda got lost.  I didn't even want to attempt to use the bus system, which was in chinese, and I didn't trust the taxi drivers, nor could tell them where to go in the first place.  So i just kinda wandered the streets of Beijing, freezing and getting my shoes soaked.  It was dinner time and I didn't know where to go.  But KFC shined in the distance like a beacon, so I went there, knowing I could order something normal.  I then walked back to my hostel and chilled the bar for a bit. I had a train to catch at 9PM, so I headed out at around 7:30.

My train was at Beijing Railway station.  It was an overnight train to Shanghai.  The cabin was four people set up in a bunkbed style.  2 of the people in my cabin spoke english and one of them, Shanghainese, helped me plan out my sightseeing for the next day.  I got a pretty good night sleep on the train.  The next morning I woke up in Shanghai.