Our train left Nanjing around midnight on Friday, and we arrived in Beijing at 10:30 the next morning. I was peacefully sleeping when our program director woke me up at 9 a.m. saying, “Wake up sleepy head.” I opened my eyes and asked, “Oh, are we there yet?” He looked confused and responded, “No. We still have two hours.” Confused? Me too.
After checking into our hotel and eating lunch, we first went to Tiananmen (天安门) Square, which translated means “heaven peace door.” It was kind of an eerie feeling being at a place where there have been so many riots concerning communism and where the government headquarters now stands.
We then went and toured the Forbidden City, the palace where eighteen emperors previously lived. It was huge! In ancient Chinese culture, the number “1000” was reserved only for the gods. Not wanting to offend the gods, the Forbidden City palace was built with only 999 ½ rooms. It is amazing to think that hundreds of years ago, that very place was a bustling (who uses that word?!) city that was the center of one of the world’s most powerful empires. While I was standing there soaking in the beauty of the moment, my thoughts were turned to those things that are most important in life…college basketball starts in a couple of weeks! Come on Tom! Go Hoosiers! :)
Saturday night, our tour bus dropped us off at this massive mall, and we were given the evening to eat dinner and to just look around. Before we got off the bus, our tour guide told us to be careful of any women who might come up to us wanting to learn English. After we finished eating dinner at Yoshinoya (one of my favorite restaurants in Hong Kong!), we walked around the mall looking for t-shirts because Jimmy packed only one! Considering we were roommates and were going to be in Beijing for four days, I fully supported him in buying a couple more shirts. :) I was standing outside of a store eating popcorn (a delicious strawberry, apple, and caramel assortment, from Dairy Queen of all places!) when this well-dressed girl approached me. She asked me if I lived in Beijing, and she told me that she wanted to learn English. I looked at her and told her that 1) I didn’t live in Beijing and 2) there was absolutely no need for her to ever learn any more English! I learned that our tour guide was a wise man. :)
We woke up early Sunday morning and attended church with the Beijing 1st branch. The meeting place was on the fourth floor of this huge hotel, and when we stepped off the elevator you would have thought that we were walking into a church building back home.
It is such a special privilege to be able to freely attend church in China, and the fast and testimony meeting was wonderful. As we were sitting in the chapel, I noticed that it was starting to snow outside. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into! Beijing received its first snow of the season on Sunday, and it snowed all day!
We were all very much unprepared for the weather, and I think it is safe to say that “COLD” became the theme for the day. After church, we continued our touring by riding around “the famous alleys of Beijing” in rickshaws. It doesn’t really sound like a lot of fun, but for some reason it was a blast! We were all wet and freezing, but really—who gets to ride around on a rickshaw during a snowstorm in Beijing?! We couldn’t complain.
Later that afternoon, we went and saw the Summer Palace and the Temple of Heaven before heading back to the hotel for the evening. I haven’t enjoyed a hot shower that much for a long time!
Monday morning, we got up, ate breakfast, and took a bus two hours to the Great Wall. Of course I had been looking forward to hiking the Great Wall, but the adventures awaiting us were even more than I could have imagined. When we got up to the entrance of the Great Wall, we noticed that there was a huge line of people waiting to start hiking. Because it had snowed so much the previous day, the wall was so icy that people were having trouble getting up the steep parts that didn’t have steps. We weren’t about to let some snow and ice stop us from climbing the Great Wall, so we pushed past everyone and started hiking. When we got to the first hill, I quickly realized why everyone was moving so slowly. It was so steep and covered in ice that everyone was in a line holding on to the wall’s rails slowly pulling themselves up. It reminded me of hiking Half Dome, just without the sweat. :)
The line going up the wall on the right side was so slow that my classmates and I started pulling ourselves up the left side where people were coming down. Grateful for the rest, the people coming down offered their hands and arms to us (except the European lady who yelled at me, “Don’t touch me!”) to help pull us up. About halfway up, I started to slip backwards, and I felt someone behind put their hand on my butt to help push me forward. I chose to be grateful for the man’s “generous offering” rather than to feel awkward. The man was faithful in his “support” (I’m sorry. I couldn’t help it.) until we finally made it to the top of the hill. I thanked him for his help and asked if we could take a picture together (I mean, I didn’t want to forget the man who so willing lent a “helping hand.” Alright, I’m done now.). I’ll just let the pictures explain the rest… :)
We were on the wall for about two hours. It was so windy, but it was so gorgeous! Once we reached the peak we were hiking towards, we decided to turn back so we wouldn’t be late in meeting the group. I took the lead and started walking fast back towards the way we had come up. I started to jog down some of the less steep parts of the wall to save time. We reached one of the steeper peaks, and we saw that there was a long line of people slowly going down the mountain holding on to the side. I didn’t want to waste the time waiting in line, so I began to jog down the peak. About halfway down I realized that the peak was much steeper than I had thought, and I saw that there were two more big drop-offs before the wall leveled out again. I was past the point of no return. I hit a patch of ice about halfway down, and I had no choice but to run faster and faster to keep my legs up with my body’s momentum. The throngs of people began to move out of the way, and people started yelling, “Ohhh. Oooohhhhhh. OOOOOOOHHHHHHHH!!!!!” I felt like I was running in an icy marathon. With one more drop to go, a woman stepped out in the middle of my path with her arms outstretched. I realized that she was sacrificing her body to stop me. “That is so nice of her.” I didn’t really have time to think, but I did notice that she looked Japanese, so I yelled in English, “No. No. No. I’m okay. I’m okay.” She dodged out of my way at the last minute and I kept sprinting until the wall eventually leveled off enough so that I was able to grab the side and slow my momentum. Everyone turned and stared at me when I finally came to a stop. I didn’t know if I should feel really cool or if I should be completely embarrassed, so I smiled and chose to feel really good about myself. My classmates said that I was a “wild man.”
“Who’s the wild man now?!” Name that movie. Two hints. The film is set in Indiana, and the line is spoken by a law student.
After lunch, we went to the Olympic sites for the afternoon. We even saw the booth where Bob did all of his commentary! I still love that Bob and Bella became such good friends. :)
The bus dropped us off at the silk market that night, so we spent the evening bargaining on everything from fake Nikes, to fake Ralph Lauren Polos, to fake iPods, etc. The salespeople were pretty “physical” at this place (please don’t start singing Olivia Newton John) and more than once did they grab my clothes and attempt to drag me back into their stores. I admit—it was fun. :)
We had a completely free day on Tuesday, so some of my classmates and I decided to treat ourselves to the Hard Rock Café Beijing. I can honestly say that it was the best meal I’ve had since being in China! The BBQ bacon cheeseburger finished off with an apple cobbler was heaven, and the 80s music brought joy to my heart. I even took the liberty to help some of my classmates better appreciate the decade. I mean, shouldn’t everyone know who Debbie Gibson is?! (Only in My Dreams, Shake Your Love, Foolish Beat… No?! Come on people!)
We couldn’t leave before letting our inner-Huey Lewis and the News shine through. :)
We went to another market in the afternoon and then we went to see a Beijing acrobatic group in the early evening. After the acrobat performance, we headed back to the hotel, and by 10 a.m. Wednesday morning our train arrived back in Nanjing.
I had such a great time in Beijing! I feel so lucky that I’ve been able to tour so many neat places with this study abroad. Beijing was the last of our program’s trips, but I am looking forward to spending the next month or so in Nanjing just being able to hang out with the people we’ve met here and focus on improving my language abilities.
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