China - Day 5

Day 5 in China was National Day. National day commemorates the day the People's Republic of China was founded - October 1, 1949. We assumed this holiday would be the equivalent to the 4th of July here in the states. We couldn't have been more wrong. National day was a HUGE deal. We didn't realize it at the time, but the entire nation of China is given the whole week off to travel to Beijing to celebrate.

And I feel quite certain the entire nation of China was in Tiananmen Square with us that morning. It was incredible. I have to say in retrospect it was amazing to see all those people in Tiananmen, but at the time it was quite overwhelming. There were people there selling tiny Chinese flags. They were only 1 Yuan each or around 14 cents so we bought some to participate in the festivities. Wouldn't you know they tried to pawn off the defective Chinese flag on me?? I'm sure they didn't expect the white girls to know it was wrong. I made him trade me for a good one :)



Note my defective flag:




After we walked around Tiananmen Square for a bit we decided to go up in Tiananmen Gate. It was such an incredible feeling to look out over the gate that Mao Zedong had addressed the people from so many years before. As far as I could see there where people. I cannot describe in words how amazing it was.



While we were up in the gate, another Chinese girl asked to take a photo with us. We spoke with her for a bit and found out her name was Stacy and she was studying English in University.



She was so nice and friendly and decided to show us around the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City is where many of the Emperors who ruled China lived. It was huge! Much larger than the Summer Palace and very easy to get lost in. It really reminded me of a maze because so many of the buildings looked just alike. We walked around the city for at least 4 or 5 hours and still didn't see everything.

By the ticket booth to the forbidden city. I caught him looking at me so he let me have a pic with him :)






It was supposed to be good luck to touch this handle


The stone we are standing in front of was carved and moved to the palace all in once piece.




This little boy is wearing split pants - much of China's answer to diapers.


This shows a little bit of how crowded it was that day











Empress CiXi had one of her rival concubines drowned in this well


After we left the Forbidden City we headed back to the hostel and took a short nap. We really needed it after the long day of fighting all the people to see things at the Forbidden City. That night for dinner we headed over to HoHai Lake. It was a beautiful area with lots of restaurants, bars, and street vendors. We had a nice dinner and then headed back to our hostel to get some rest because the next morning we were headed for the GREAT WALL!!!

HoHai Lake


Sarah buying some sugar fruit


Some street vendors were blowing heated carmel into animal shapes


One of the Western-geared bars by the lake


And of course we had to have a taste of home before we headed to the hostel for the night

China - Day 4

It's been a long time coming, but finally China day 4 is hitting the blog!! :)

Between jetlag and excitement sleeping on the train for me was close to impossible. I kept waking up thinking, are we in Beijing yet?!? I finally got up around 4am and just looked out the window until the other girls woke up. It was dark but I could still make out some of the features of the landscape. I was surprised how many cars were on roads and lights on in homes that we passed. Finally the sun came up and I could see all the features of the landscape passing out window. Mostly we passed fields and small towns. I remember one thing that struck me as odd - I kept seeing sunflower fields. I'm not sure why there was so many but they were very beautiful on the otherwise drab landscape.

After everyone woke up we visited the tiny bathrooms on the train and got dressed for arrival at the train station. Once we arrived in Beijing and exited the train, we were inside a huge train station. We walked and walked before we finally found the exit. Oh my was it cold! It had rained the night before and that combined with our travel north, had resulted in shockingly colder temps. We scurried around trying to find an English speaking Chinese person to write down the name of our hostel in Chinese Characters to show to the cab driver. Finally Tiffany found an English speaking train ticket line and the clerk was able to do that for us. Into the taxi line we went!! It was an interesting line....the cabbies were let into the cab area by the flag man in waves. Once the cabs stopped they let groups of people from the line out all at the same time to get a cab. Kinda like musical chairs with cabs. Needless to say if this was a game we lost. Every cab that we started to get into said no when we showed them where we wanted to go. We must have gone through three waves of cabs, all without someone willing to take us. We were tired, cold, and really wanted a shower. Playing musical taxi cab was the last thing we wanted to be doing. Finally we spotted a hostel across the street from the train station and decided to go over there to see if they could help us. They were able to give us a book of area hostels that had a page for our hostel and a map. Finally with the use of the map we were able to hail a cab and made it to our hostel.

Tiffany, Carissa, and Sarah at the train station



Now, let me preface this by saying I've never stayed in a hostel before. I'm not exactly a hostel kinda girl. I really like nice hotels and yes, I'll admit it, I'm a little high maintenance, so I was really weary about staying in a hostel. We checked into the hostel and found out that we were staying in their "West Yard." A teenage boy and a man on a bike (with our luggage on a cart attached to it) walked us over to the west yard. Once we arrived the west yard was nice and I was glad to be there. The teenage boy was named Scott and he was very nice! He looked at our map with us and gave us tips on how to get to different sites we wanted to see. After we showered and changed into clean clothes, we headed out to the Summer Palace.

The entrance to our hostel


Group shot


Scott helping us with the map


Entrance to the courtyard where our room was



The Summer Palace is just that, a palace where the Imperial Court of old China liked to stay during the summer. It is often associated with the only Empress of China CiXi who made the Palace her home year round for much of her reign. CiXi is also referred to as the Empress Dowager and gained this title when her son became Emperor but was too young to rein. She ruled China for years from behind a screen. I remember studying her in college so I was so excited to see the place she once called home. The Summer Palace was amazing! It is a huge area surrounding a lake. I took lots of photos, so here's a bunch!