Beijing Baby!

Hey everyone,
So a lot of these internet bars that I go to are all gamer's bars so there's no CD-rom... grrrr.... I need to find a real computer so I can upload photos. That and all these computers are in Chinese so that doesn't help either... Alas, I'll have to continue with these text only blogs.

I left you guys in Xi'an. So my cold got worse and worse. I had a pretty rough overnight train ride and I felt pretty much like crap the next day. My nose was running and I couldn't stop coughing, but could I pass up on visiting the Forbidden City the next day? Nope - I was in Beijing for less than 72 hours and I couldn't miss anything.

We arrived in Beijing early Sunday morning and we went on a tour of the city. First stop was the Drum Tower for lovely views of Beijing... sort of.... you can't really see much when the city is covered in haze. I asked the tour guide if there was ever blue sky in Beijing. He joked that he hadn't seen blue sky since the 70's... haha... we eventually did see blue sky the next day.

We visited the Hutong area. It's an area that is centuries old where people live. Pretty tight quarters and lots of narrow alleys. We went on a rickshaw tour of the area. Then we visited the Forbidden City which is awesome. It's about 1km from North to South and 750m across. Our tour guide told us all about the Emperor and his 3000 concubines...

She kept asking us questions like - "guess how many people live here?" "guess how long it took to build the palace?" We would guess and then she would say "why you say that?" The way she talked and asked questions - she made it sound like we were much of a morons, but I don't think that was what she intended. Some things get lost in translation I reckon'. It was rather funny b/c the next day when a group of us visited the Summer Palace on our own - and we made up our own commentary and asked each other questions facetiously.

I can't imagine living in the Forbidden City and being Emperor... it would be so lonely and miserable. Except that the tour guide kept looking at me when she told us about teh concubines and how he would have waiting rooms and the girls would line up for him. She would look at me: "Mmmm... very good to be a man at that time, huh? Very lucky, eh? What you think?" I wanted to say - "Uh... I believe in the empowerment of women" but I didn't really get the chance.

After the Forbidden City, we headed to Tiananmen Square. It's just a really big square that aparently can hold a half million people. I will always have fond memories b/c I decided to splurge - 15 Yuan (2 dollars CND) and fly a kite! :D It was SO AWESOME running around the square flying my kite. If only I could post pictures.... I got such a kick out of it.

In the evening, a few of us ventured out to the central district to have dinner. We passed by a series of food stalls selling everything under the sun on skewers. And when I say everything... I mean everything. Again, I wish I could post pictures of the lamb testicles on a stick... the scorpions on the stick... the centipedes on a stick... the small deep fried birds on sticks... EWWWWWW.....

The next day, we visited the Summer Palace and went shopping at the Pearl Market. I also visited the Temple of Heaven which is a stunningly beautiful building. We also had Peking Duck for dinner that night. Yummy!

Tuesday was the BIG DAY! It was GREAT WALL day. We drove 3 hours out to visit a part of the wall that is much more remote. The part of the wall closest to Beijing is overrun with tourists. We were pretty much the only group at Simatai when we arrived there are 9:15am. We also had amazing blue sky. It was so picturesque. I had a blast walking along the Great Wall. It wasn't as bad of a hike as I had imagined. Again, it pales in comparison to the Grouse Grind. But it was pretty freakin' awesome. And naturally, we had a series of vendors i.e. "guides" follow us along the way selling us stuff. I succumbed and bought a tacky "I Climbed the great wall" Tshirt but then my guide kept saying that all my other friends were buying more stuff - e.g. books, postcards, etc. Good grief woman! I already bought an overpriced T-shirt. Oh well....

Last night on the overnight train, I had a nice long chat w/ our tour guide about all sorts of things. Chinese history, politics, philosophy, religion. It was a really good conversation. I gained a lot of perspective. It was good in short. I'm really proud to say that I am half Chinese. It's such an amazingly rich culture.

Today, we're in Suzhou - the city of gardens. I visited a garden this morning. It was alright. You can visit the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Garden in Chinatown for a similar experience. it's about the same. So I'm just taking it slow today b/c I'm pretty pooped. Tomorrow, we leave for Shanghai.

That's it for now. I think I need a nap.... Zzzzzzz.............