The Northern Capital

Traveling with people, especially people that you don’t know very well, is always an experience. You’re getting to know each other as you’re forced through the stresses of catching planes, language barriers, and sharing new experiences and trying to get all that you want to get out of it. It’s rather like that first terrifying day freshman year of university, when you make your tentative claims of a bed and a desk, making awkward conversation with the person you’re going to be forced to live with for a year. You can come out with a best Bro or someone who threw a picture frame at your head; one way or another, though, you’ll have stories and memories.

Despite all this, Beijing was absolutely FANTASTIC. We had October 1st until October 7th free; we spent the weekend resting, then took off Monday. It takes about two hours overall to get to the airport; not a particularly difficult journey, but it is certainly a hassle to take two metros and then a bullet train (that reaches 431 km/h! Fastest commercial train in the world!). We got to Pudong Int’l and ate a nice dinner, then hopped on our plane. Luck had it that I got to sit all alone, and while I didn’t have anyone right next to me, two Chinese ladies were laughing at me as I had my normal panic during take-off. Yet we arrived in Beijing with no trouble, other than the fact that we got there at midnight and would have to take a taxi into town. We had a super-exciting time trying to explain to our taxi driver where our hostel was, since the website didn’t have the address in Chinese, but the wonderful man got us there (with lots of complaining).

Tuesday was an “omg we’re in Beijing!” sort of day. We saw the very, very crowded Forbidden City, we got smooshed in crowds, stood in line for an hour, then wandered the City itself. It was definitely cool, but as we had forsaken breakfast, I was a little cranky. We met two fellow travelers, a Turkish guy and a Ukranian broad who walked in front of cars while holding out her hand like a superhero. You try and pull that in Shanghai, you’re dead. I don’t think she understood that we as pedestrians don’t have the right of way… Anyway. After the City we went to the park across the street and climbed the giant hill in order to get a lovely view of (a very smoggy) Beijing. After, Lauren and I had to demand lunch, so we got our own little whitey room in a small restaurant and had a delicious meal. Rested up, we went and found Starbucks, a lake, a bar street, and Beihai Park. That is where I bought the most ridiculous hat ever. It is glorious. All tuckered out from the day, we went back to the hostel, rested up, had dinner, then went back to the Bar Street next to the lake. I became a very grumpy drunk, resented everyone, and left early as I was having a bit of a missing-California breakdown. This was not helped by the fact that Beijing taxi drivers are a bit retarded – I had three where I showed them the address, I showed them nearby metro stations on a map, I told them intersections, but they just stared at me and/or the map blankly. So I ended up walking a couple of kilometres home after walking a dozen earlier. The nice thing about Beijing, though, is that people are actually courteous. If you’re walking around confused with a map they’ll offer help, and if you’re sobbing as you stagger home in heels they’ll leave you alone.

Wednesday was better. We got up, grabbed breakfast at McDonalds (not my favourite choice, but I was outvoted, and a crap breakfast is better than none at all), then headed off to Summer Palace. The Summer Palace was probably my highlight of the trip; I loved the more quiet forests, the steep hills, the bright halls around the lake, and the tranquility of being out of the city. Yet the other two, after a couple of hours, were eager to move on to see more things, despite that we had only seen part of the Palace grounds, so Lauren and I conceded. We stopped by the Olympics facilities, waved, then went to the Heavenly Temple park. (We did get a bit lost on the way – I suppose that’s what happens when you don’t listen to the person holding the map.) We saw some live music, wandered around, then Lauren and I people watched as the other two went into the temple. (Temples are sort of like churches – yes, they’re very nifty, but after you see a few they all start to look the same.) After that we meandered out of the park, grabbed a snack, and then hailed a cab back to the hostel. The snack (a crepe with an egg and sauce) didn’t agree with my stomach so dinner didn’t sound too appealing, but everyone else was dying for duck, so we got directions from the hostel to a good place and headed out. These directions were not up to par. We walked around, trying to figure it out, got cranky, then somehow ended up escorted personally to a duck restaurant and given a four-course meal with a discount and free-flowing beer. This. Was. Amazing. All grumpiness gone, we had veggies, the most delicious duck ever, yak meat, and soup. Just… yum. And lots of beer. So much beer, in fact, that we all waddled back to our hostel pleasantly drunk and collapsed.

Thursday was nice and relaxing and lovely. Rosie and Sam went to the Great Wall; Lauren and I, feeling like we’d see enough of the Wall during our marathon in May, decided to pass. Instead, we slept in, went to Tian’anmen Square, made appropriate jokes, then saw that our next destination, the National Museum, had a ridiculously long line. So instead, we hopped on the metro, intending to go to the Bell and Gate tower. We ended up going the wrong way on the metro (which thankfully was the loop line), but we had seats, so we just rode it out and people-watched. On the way, our itinerary changed, as Lauren had looked through my Beijing guide and decided that the Lama temple looked cool. So the Lama Temple it was; it was definitely the most authentic-seeming temple that we had been to. The highlight was a 26-metre wooden statue of Buddha, about four or five stories tall, all made from one single bit of wood. It was really cool. I did, however, lose my little Chinese flag. I am quite heartbroken about this. After that, we wandered around the hutong, little alleyways that seem to be the veins of Beijing, and looked at shops, temples, and general Chinese life until we got hungry and found lunch. We wandered a bit more and then headed off for a lovely, lovely foot massage. Yet more wandering, ending with us at the hostel to rest a bit before dinner. (This is where I interject that our hostel’s showers were amazing and I loved taking long showers.) For dinner we picked up a fellow traveler from Belgium and we had hotpot, which was super spicy, yet delicious. After we had the lovely experience of getting lost, partially because China is confusing, partially because the people who “knew where we were going” had no clue where this street was. As is life. The journey was much more interesting than the eventual destination of Bar Street – we ate silkworm! It was disgusting, but at least I manned up and swallowed it. Nearly puked it up, though. Just… ugh. Oh, and we had shark. So that was that night.

Friday was heading-home day. We had an early-afternoon flight, which didn’t really give us enough time to do anything in the morning. I was content enough talking with other travelers until we needed to leave, but the others wanted to go walking, so I told them to be back at a certain point so we could leave with enough time to get to the airport. It was the last day of the Golden Week, which meant it would be sort of like traveling on Thanksgiving. Naturally, they came back about twenty minutes after I asked, then took forever to get ready… We still made our flight, but we arrived just before they started boarding, which is way out of my comfort zone. I think instead of doing the normal thing and taking a chill pill about it, I’ll leave them next time instead. Lovingly, of course. The trip overall was great – I really enjoyed the history and the kindness of Beijing (though not necessarily all the spitting), I got a lot of walking done, the food was great, I read about a hundred pages in Orgueil et Préjugés (c’est une langue donc je ne comprends rien, clairement), and overall had a really good time. Now I’m back in the daily drill of teaching, and while I need to catch up on my rest, I’m eager to jump back out into Asia. Casually planned is a trip to Chengdu with Lauren to see some pandas, Tokyo for Christmas to see my brother, maybe Hong Kong solo for western New Years, and then southeast Asia with Lauren – so far, only Thailand seems to be confirmed. We’ll see how it goes.

On a quick non-trip note: I got paid! It’s really, really, really exciting. Especially since I’m realizing just how much money I can set aside so I can make all these trips a reality. Coworkers are all still great. I still need to get my rhythm so I can stay out past midnight drinking before falling asleep; I have yet to have a great night out. Teaching is fine, my kids are fun and/or challenging. I’m hoping to find a Mandarin tutor in the next couple of weeks so I can add it to my list of languages (though I suppose one could say that one or two years living in a country is nowhere near what one needs for learning…). The food is still amazing; I’ve discovered that there is no such thing as too many dumplings, buns, or noodles.

I’ll leave off at that note. The next update will probably be on some boring, yet fascinating aspect of Chinese life. Peace out, miss you all.

“If you do not step forward, you will always be in the same place.”