I arrived a day before the rest of my colleagues so I could do some sightseeing before we started work on Tuesday. After a long day of traveling I made it to the hotel, dropped off my stuff, took a rinse-off shower, and headed out. The hotel recommended the Temple of Heaven as it was easy to get to and a pretty park area to check out too. I spent all afternoon wandering around just taking in this other culture. It is lucky that due to the Olympics all the signs are in both Chinese and English so it was easy getting around on the Subway and walking about. You can't be real big on having your personal space in China though, there are so many people and they just kind of stand right on top of you. Subway often was like a bunch of sardines piled in (well not as bad as some of the videos you see where people are pushing their way in to just get in, here you at least could stand without being pushed and smashed).
The Temple of Heaven, afternoon 1. The park was a very fun place to people watch too. There were people who were just hanging out in there all day. Doing Tai Chi, Chinese Ribbon Dances, playing instruments, singing, and just hanging about. The temple was pretty amazing though, was used for prayers to heaven for a good harvest. The main structure itself is the largest all wooden structure in existence. Engineers to this day I guess still learn about this structure, and how the monument was made with only wood (no nails or anything). It is interesting to see all of these monuments and just feel the environment around this space. Even though many of the monuments have been re-built or renovated so much that there might not be much left of the original... it is still captivating, and it gives you a good ground to imagine it back in the day.
Enter...
Once it started to get dark I thought I would be tricky and go out of the other entrance to the park area and find a metro over there. However, at this point I had not picked up a map (besides a subway map) from the hotel so I wasn't 100% sure where one would be. But tired, and slightly delirious me (from being up for so many hours and totally not being acclimated to the timezone I was in..) decided to just wander around the outside of the temple, because clearly there had to be another metro stop somewhere nearby... Well about 45 minutes later I was still wandering, and couldn't even see the wall lining the temple grounds anymore... Very hard to ask for directions when no one speaks English. Luckily I found a hotel and went in and the lady called her manager to come down and he told me how to get home (hop on the bus for a couple stops and then get off at the metro stop). He didn't seem to trust I knew what he was saying though, so he wrote down (in Chinese), step by step, what I needed to do so that if I was confused or lost again, I could show someone the paper and they could point me the way. I didn't need the paper, as getting on the bus and seeing the metro was easy enough, but it sure was nice of him to go to the trouble.
After I got back to the hotel I grabbed some German food for dinner and headed to bed to crash. Luckily, staying up all day wandering around I managed to pretty much beat the jet-lag. I slept all through the night, and slept hard.
Day #2: Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City adventure. I spent all day wandering around the grounds and just taking in the environment. I brought a book and just hung out reading for a long time too.
Tiananmen Square - has a very powerful feeling it it. Kind of eerie feeling to think of all that has happened here, among others, all the protests that have taken place... There are so many armed guards around this place it was kind or creepy. Was much nicer when I made it through into the Forbidden City...
Not sure why some of the statues looked electrocuted, but they were my favorite :-D
Then the rest of my team arrived and work began... Was quite an interesting week. Communication issues were rampant. A good learning / growing experience though, trying to figure out other ways to explain things (sometimes with pictures / diagrams). Everyone was very nice though, which made the experience much more enjoyable. We worked hard, and ate very good (mostly for very reasonable prices). Except when we went out with a couple people from the office they of course made us eat strange things...
Strange dish #1 - spicy chicken feet.. YUCK. I really barely gagged it down. I was trying so hard to not make a face or anything, and just be a good sport about it, but alas, my face gave me away and the waitress came over laughing asking if I was alright. Ugh, I suck. But man, it was a rubbery foot I was eating... Ick. Still, I have such an appreciation for those who eat all parts of the animal and don't let anything go to waste. I am just not strong enough to be one of those people.
I enjoyed the Japanese restaurants the most I think, I love those places where you have your own chef who is cooking right in front of you. Entertainment all meal. I need to eat more places like this at home too. This whole trip I tried to be so good about food, and just eat whatever it was that was put in front of me. And just not ask too many questions. Overall I ate very well and tried a bunch of interesting dishes. :-)
And I saved the best for last... The Great Wall!!!! They (the girls in our China office, and the hotel staff) made me nervous about doing the long 7 1/2 mile trek I was planning on doing between two towns. Which sounded amazing because then I could get away from the tourists more and experience something most people don't get to. But they made good points about safety when I am hiking places where the reconstruction is not as complete, and if I am hiking by myself and anything happens it would not be good. Also, hiring a car and just giving him written instructions (as most drivers understand no English, written or verbal) seemed a bit sketchy. So instead I joined a small tour (9 people) and we headed out for the day. The highlight was when we reached the wall, we spent a couple hours hiking the Mutianyu section of the wall. Less touristy than the Badaling section which is closest to the city and is the easiest/ most restored so that is where most of the people go. Still, there were a zillion people around here, so I hiked far away from the starting point on the wall to get away from all the masses. Still the wall is so large even at the beginning it wasn't too bad with the people. The awesomeness of the wall kind of takes away the focus of everything else. Even with just an hour and a half hike on the wall I was soooo tired the end of the day, my knees were shaking, and the next couple days I had sore legs from the stairs. Quite an up and down trek. Wish I had more time :-)
At the beginning of the excursion we stopped for a tour of a jade factory, which was fun for a few minutes. But after that I was ready to get on with it and get up to the Great Wall. I know this is how the tour companies really make their money, as I am sure they get paid off by the places to stop their tour bus there. So just had to be a good sport and admire the pretty pieces, and try to not be too impatient ;-p
At the end of the day excursion we stopped for a tea party and drank some traditional Chinese teas. Which was really quite fun, to see how you were supposed to drink all these different kinds. Half of the teas though are too floral for me, it just tastes too strange to drink flowers to me. But still was fun. Overall the trip was interesting and fun, was good to have a Chinese guide (who spoke excellent English) who could give you history of things and tell you things you otherwise wouldn't have known. Hopefully if I go to China again though, I can have someone else there with me who will want to do a long hike on the wall... Then I can get more time to soak that all in :-)
My Beijing tour ended here... Now back home for a while before the next adventure begins... I think I am going to be a pretty lazy lump and really recharge my batteries.
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