Arriving in Beijing

Yesterday we arrived in Beijing! After a restful night's sleep on our awesome hard sleeper on the train, we headed to our hostel. It was there we set up shop, waited for our room to be ready, and planned our itinerary for the last 4 days in China. There's so much to do in and around Beijing, 2 weeks wouldn't be enough, so we're just going to have to stick to the main highlights: Summer Palace, Olympic Park, Great Wall, Tienanmen Square, and the Forbidden City. First however, we needed to secure our tickets for the Trans-Mongolian. We reserved the tickets but needed to pick them up and pay for them at Ocean Travel agency somewhere in the city. We spent most of the day relaxing, organizing, and getting the tickets. We ended the night with the hostel's dumpling party. There were about 4 Chinese women teaching about 10 foreigners making dumplings together, and we made so many! We had about 5 trays worth! They were filled with tofu and vegetables and it was a lot of fun learning how to make them by hand from scratch. It doubled as a free dinner and we spent the evening having a great conversation with a Taiwanese woman and a mother and daughter who just spent a month in Mongolia! It was great to pick their brains and hear about their experiences. They were very interested in our experiences in Korea, too, so we had plenty to talk about. The next day, Saturday, we got up and made plans to see the Summer Palace and Olympic Park. We got to use the subway all day, which is a much better way to go than buses or taxis. Getting around in China has been overall much more difficult than any place was experienced in Korea, but Beijing's subway system has redeemed it a little bit. First stop was the Summer Palace, which we overheard someone yesterday said they spent 6 hours at and didn't see the whole thing. It's absolutely massive and easily hast to be the coolest summer home in the world. The grounds are set around a huge lake that you can walk around for about 4 miles. At the north end there is an intricate set of palace buildings, poem reading rooms, reflection rooms, massive pagodas, and everything else ancient royalty needed. The best part was it was a little crowded, but pretty quiet by Beijing weekend standards. Translation: we could actually get pictures without other people in them, which is amazing. We spent a few hours touring around the grounds and looking at all the beautiful architecture. The bridges alone were amazing mixtures of traditional and creative design. We enjoyed the mild (only 85*) weather and watched the paddle boats and tour boats float across the lake. I was again surprised at the lack of foreigners, which made me think of an article I read a few months back. So many of China's people are slowly growing into a massive middle class that their biggest tourist problem is now themselves. As this country grows wealthier, the transportation systems are being clogged, and the tourists venues will soon be overrun. As a witness as to how things are now, I really don't know what they're going to do with much more people. We've heard stories since coming here of now empty Universities being overhauled and doubled in size in preparation for the next generation to come. The Summer Palace was a great escape from the bustling city and was a very peaceful place. But we eventually made our way around and had to head back to modern China. Our next stop was Olympic Park, and after a few transfers we had made it. What a stark difference. A great open concrete field of modern architecture and smog. We were so close to the Bird's Nest stadium yet somehow could barely see it. The street vendors were back, trying to sell two year old trinkets and overpriced water. They each hound you even after they watch you turn down the 8 people in front of them. The Nest was really expensive to visit, so we did the Water Cube instead. It's another really interesting building, and we got to visit the pool where Michael Phelps won all those medals and broke all those World Records. It was a fun experience, but as we made our way back to the subway we both agreed we could both feel the effect of the smog in our lungs. It looked hazy, but it was just pollution, I'm sure we'll see it in the pictures. I've never sen anything that bad before! After the park we were craving a little Western food and broke down and had some Pizza Hut. It was delicious, but the service was pretty bad (another difference from Korea). We made it back to the hostel and finally had time to blog a little bit. Our hosts taught us how to get around China's web filters (using a Chinese software program, haha), and we had the two computers to ourselves most of the night. And the computers actually cooperated enough so I could fix the Flip! Finally! Feeling organized and prepared for the big day tomorrow, we headed to bead. Tomorrow: Hiking the Great Wall of China!!!