Beijing wonderland

In case anyone was worried (Mom), I'm doing great in Beijing and having the time of my life! I was a bit apprehensive since I don't know any Chinese but once I got to my hotel, everything was fine. I met some really nice and interesting fellow travelers and found that the staff was so helpful! They spoke English and helped me book tours, train tickets and hotel reservations. I also talked to some people who had been traveling through China and they gave me some advice and assurance. So, yes, the language barrier might as well be as big as the Pacific Ocean but I'm able to get around just fine (even take public buses without getting lost!).

I'm staying at the Red Lantern House and this is one of the nicest hostels I've stayed at so far. They have this really lovely courtyard, the rooms are clean and the showers have hot water. What more can I ask for? Jeez, I can't believe how I used to be a hotel snob (Ritz or Four Seasons, nothing else would do). I also met Laura, this really nice Brit girl, who I ended up hanging out with a lot. Without her, I don't think I would have been brave enough to tackle the hardcore bargaining or the public buses!

Laura and me at the Red Lantern.

Beijing has always been near the top of my travel list so I was so excited to be here. And I was not disappointed. The first day, I decided to rent a bike and ride around the hutongs (sort of alley neighborhoods) and get my bearings around this HUGE city. I was armed with my bike and my map but ended up getting hopelessly lost. The hutongs are riddled with little winding streets that don't follow any sort of system (like the main avenues). I thought I was riding to the Forbidden City but in fact was riding around in a huge circle. I finally figured out where I was and decided to give up on the bike but it was so much fun! I was weaving in and out of cars and getting a feel for the everyday life in Beijing.

Riding around the ponds in Beijing.

Beijing really has some beautiful parts of it as well as crazy pollution and huge, ugly buildings.

Other bike riders in the hutongs. The hutongs have these really interesting, small and crowded buildings. It has such a different feel than high-rise apartment buildings. Their are being demolished as Beijing wants to modernize itself.

A common scene in the hutongs. Old men playing chinese chess.

In Beijing, I also saw the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. Both were pretty impressive in both the sights themselves and the number of tourists. It was hard to move an inch in any direction without almost running over some small Chinese lady in a brightly colored hat, indicating which tour group she belonged to. The Chinese really like to travel. Also, there was a lack of English information so Laura and I wandered around and admired the buildings though a lot of the historical significance was a bit lost on us, unfortunately. This is where the emperors lived and ruled for 500 years! Also, because Beijing is going to host the Olympics in 2008, a lot of the major buildings in the Forbidden City were covered with scaffolding to be "renovated".

There's this huge portrait of Chairman Mao in front of the Forbidden City. He's everywhere.

The main pavilion but under scaffolding. Beijing is under some serious renovation in preparation for the Olympics. Also note the tour groups in color hats. This picture does no justice in depicting the sheer number of tourists here!

Me in front of a recently renovated gate. I wish I could live like royalty!

Yes, there's a Starbucks in the Forbidden City. A STARBUCKS.

Me at Tiananmen Square. It's the biggest public square in the world but it has this weird institutional feel since its all concrete. It is huge!

A cute kid playing with kites in the square.

Yes, communism lives on. As well as the Olympics.

After a few hours, the buildings all started to look the same (the City is a lot bigger than I thought possible) so we decided to leave and grab some steamed dumplings for lunch. Ordering food in China has been quite an adventure so far. I had my little phrase book and was ready to order jiaozi and, at first, the waitress seemed to understand. And then she started asking me and talking to me in Chinese and I had no idea what she wanted from me. Since I'm Korean, I blend in pretty well, which is good since I don't get hassled by touts but its bad because they all expect me to speak Chinese. And then they laugh at me when I can't! But I'm not supposed to speak Chinese! Anyway, I just kept repeating jiaozi over and over again and I felt like an idiot. Finally she went back and returned with a huge steaming pile of them. The best part was that it all came out to 6 yuan (about 75 cents). Success!

Yum, dumplings! I put my pharsebook to good use (well, tried to anyway).

Laura and I also decided that we should take in some bit of Chinese culture and went to the Beijing Opera. We went to a pretty touristy theater (I don't think there was a single Chinese person there who didn't work there) but we were told it was pretty good. There were 2 pieces they performed and it probably wasn't an authentic representation of Chinese opera. Well, the first one was. There were a lot of screeching (I know I shouldn't say that but it was hard on my American ears!), hand waving and crazy costumes. The second was started that way but there were a lot of fight scenes so the actors were jumping and tumbling all over the place. That was pretty cool until it turned into almost like a circus performance. In any case, it was pretty entertaining so not a bad experience. It was probably for the best since I don't think Chinese opera is really for me.

Who doesn't belong?

Check out those crazy costumes. This was a typical tragic Asian story. Of course the woman "sacrifices" herself at the end.

Tumbling and other acrobatics.

Since I only had 4 days in Beijing, the only other thing I had time for was to see the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace was the summer playground for the royal family during the super-hot summers in Beijing. It was pretty similar to the Forbidden City but I liked it more since it included a lot of park-like areas and a huge lake. The Summer Palace is also being restored so it sort of had a Disneyland type of feel with the brand new paint and new fixtures. But it was nice - at least the parts where we were able to escape the hat people!

The Kunming Lake at the Summer Palace though it was so hazy we could barely make anything out.

More scaffolding! Dang Olympics!

Look at those colors! This was recently renovated. Its pretty but looks kind of fake.

If only I was born an empress. Sigh.

I will include the Great Wall in another post since it deserves its own commentary but overall Beijing was all I could have hoped for. The food has been fantastic, from the dumplings to the street food to the Peking duck, everything has been so good. I also bought some souvenirs after some hardcore bargining (though I probably still got ripped off)! The city is also super hectic but its been really fun (and pretty funny) trying to figure out how to get places and do things without knowing any Chinese. Its a great way to start my Asia trip so now I can't wait for Xian!

Crazy foods at the food stalls. Those are some type of bug but I couldn't tell you which kind since I was too grossed out to get a closer look.

I did want to mention one more thing. My blog is banned in China! I don't know why but I can't seem to load my page here. It worked fine in Hong Kong but I guess it doesn't meet the standards of the insane Chinese firewall. It seems to be more impenetrable than the Great Wall! I have nothing but good things to say about China so I have to say I'm a bit offended. Luckily, I'm still able to post!

I know this post is really long but Beijing has really been jam-packed with things to do almost every second of every day. I needed more time!