The Last Month.... Part 2 (Our trip to Beijing)

We went to Beijing!

Its about two weeks now since we took our trip to Beijing. It was incredible! This was Camille and I's first attempt at traveling around China by ourselves. I think a few members of our team were a bit worried about us and the fact that we do not speak Chinese, but we managed! We got to experience so many new things....such as taking overnight train rides. Sunday night Camille and I left for Beijing on  what is called a "soft sleeper". It was amazing. The train ride to Beijing was about 10 hours, but with the soft sleeper you get a nice bunk bed to sleep on with soft pillows (it was better than my bed at our apartment, not joking!) 

Camille chilling on her top bunk! The room comes with four beds, so we shared the room with two other Chinese men. They were very nice and tried to speak a little bit of English so they could talk to us!

Bottom bunk! 

We were so excited for our adventure and to act like typical tourists so the photo shoot began on the train ride! Notice we were still sporting our tiger tats from the big game that morning! Still undefeated! woop woop!

We made it! Bright and early in the morning, but we made it! First thing we did was to check-in to our hotel and have an amazing American-style breakfast with eggs, toast, and bacon. BACON! This does not happen in Huangshi! Warning: this post might be a lot about Western food! Camille and I definitely took advantage of the opportunity to eat as much familiar/ non-Chinese food as we could! We set out from our hotel to explore and this is the first thing we saw in Beijing! 

Tiananmen Square
Our first stop was Tiananmen Square.  It is the world's largest public square and that is just what it looks like. It's a huge open area surrounded by government buildings, a national museum, and the Forbidden City. They have a flag raising ceremony at sunrise every morning and at sunset.  Unfortunately, we never made it to either one of those. 

I am standing in the middle of Tiananmen Square and behind me is the entrance to the Forbidden City.

Tiananmen Square

There were two huge screens like this in the square that played a series of beautiful pictures of various places in China. Camille posed before the Great Wall.

Of all the beautiful pictures playing, of course this is what happens when I stand in front of the screen! 

I tried to wait for a better option, but it was taking a long time and lots of people were staring so I got awkward and gave up! ha

We are still in Tiananmen Square in front of the National Museum.

War memorial in the square.


Lifestyle of the famous....

This is quite possibly my favorite memory of China so far. Camille and I assumed that leaving Huangshi (where we are gawked at because there are so few foreigners here) and going to Beijing (where there are thousands of tourists and foreigners every year) meant that we would get a break from being stared at or asked to take pictures. Oh how wrong we were!!! We didn't think about the fact that we would be going to the tourist spots of Beijing where there were also be hundreds of other tourists, Chinese tourists who have never seen a foreigner! 

This was the first of many pictures to come on our three day stay in Beijing. Luckily, Camille was quick enough to ask for pictures on her camera as well. We knew we needed proof that this had actually happened. Literally this lady and her family walked up to us and not being able to speak English, promptly handed over both her babies to Camille and I! The babies were so tightly wrapped that you couldn't even see them! After this, we had to take several more pictures with other people in the square. Camille and I decided we should make it a game and count how many pictures we posed for during our trip. We only counted it if they actually came up to us and asked for a picture, because there are tons of people who "try" to be sneaky and take pictures of us while we are walking by. Try is the key word there...imagine someone pretending to text on their phone but moving the phone to follow you as you walk! Its actually pretty funny to watch! Anyway....the grand total of pictures posed for over three days was a whopping 74!!!!!

Another of my favorite memories happened later this same day when Camille and I were leaving the Forbidden City. There was a group of young boys, probably in high school, who were following us. They were trying to coax each other to come and talk to us and ask to take pictures with us. Camille said she always feels bad for the poor boy that gets pushed towards us, forced by his friends to be the brave one, so she was kind enough to ask them if they wanted pictures. Of course they did! They freaked out! All of a sudden there was a mob of people, who upon seeing us take pictures with the boys, decided they were brave enough to take pictures as well. I kid you not, when I say there were 30 people huddled around Camille and I, jumping in and out, taking turns to stand next to us and snap pictures. Flashes were going off, people were tugging on our arms to look this way and that way! It was CRAZY! I have no idea how many pictures were taken, but I feel confident to say that I now know what a celebrity feels like! The best part was this little old woman who came up behind us and was hugging both of us towards her as her family took pictures. She was so happy that she was bouncing up and down and squeaking. Her joy at taking pictures made me laugh so hard that I started crying, so then she was laughing, and then Camille was laughing, and then the family was laughing! I really wish we had a video of this moment! 

Forbidden City

After Tiananmen Square, we headed to the Forbidden City, which is called this because it was off limits for 500 years.  It was the imperial palace for two dynasties of emperors the Ming and Qing.  Before heading in through the front gates, we bought audio sets that explained everything we were looking at.  We spent 3 hours checking everything out.  This place is massive!  I'm talking 178 acres!  

I think this might be the Temple of Heaven. I'm not sure...there were a lot of temples!

This was an exhibit of the parade uniforms for soldiers during the Qing Dynasty.

And now things begin to get silly.... First of all, a three hour tour is a long time so you have to keep yourselves entertained. Second of all, our motto is that "we get stared at anyway, might as well give 'em a show". The dragon is attacking me!

Kung Fu Panda Style! We want to be Po! Please check out the guy's face! If only you could have seen the look on the faces of the Chinese family that we asked to take this picture! Priceless!

These were fire extinguishers. They used to be filled with water and part of it is made of actual gold.

The imperial garden. 

Just throwing money into some pond at the Forbidden City.  No idea what it means because our audio sets didn't tell us, but we figured it was for good luck! haha

At the end of our 3 hour tour of the Forbidden City. (Cue Gilligan's Island theme song, which Lesley sang throughout our time here, "A 3 hour tour" get it)

Peter's Tex Mex Grill! A Gift from Father!

Peter's Tex Mex Grill! This was such a blessing to us! Mexican food has been the one thing Camille and I crave the most since moving here! So we might have gone a little overboard and splurged, but it was so worth it! We started with an appetizer of 9 layer dip and chips, that's right, 9 layers, not 7! It was delicious! We had tacos and enchiladas! And even got yummy desserts, homemade chocolate cake and homemade ice cream! Best meal I've had in 3 months! I warned you I would talk about food!  Our waitress, picture above, was so sweet and let us take pictures of her in her Texas flag shirt, which is the uniform of all the restaurant staff members. We got to talk with a good bit since we stayed at Peter's for over three hours! She helped us figure out other places to go in Beijing and told us about Snack Street on wang fu jing street. Pictures of that are coming later in the post!

Day 2

We climbed the GREAT WALL!!!!!  The Great Wall basically takes a whole day because it is on the outskirts of Beijing.  After a few mishaps, we made it to the right bus station that takes you to the Great Wall.  We rode on a bus for about an hour and a half to get to Badaling.  There are many different sections of the wall you can go to, but our friends suggested Badaling, so that’s where we headed. 

Headed up to begin the climb!

I think this is my favorite!

Just a sled ride at the Great Wall....totally normal!

Headed down the Great Wall! The steps are huge and really steep so you have to hold on to the wall to get down!

It was a very surreal experience.  We both kept saying, “I can’t believe we are standing on the Great Wall right now”.  It was one of the most breath taking sights I have ever seen.  The nature that surrounds it and the actual structure of the wall were incredible.  It just reminded me how blessed I am to be on this adventure in China.  Not many people can say they have climbed the Great Wall.  It wasn’t an easy climb though, it is so steep!  Most of the steps are not at the same height either, so you really have to focus on what you are doing. 

After climbing the Wall for several hours, we were both starving!  Luckily, there just happens to be a Subway located right outside the entrance.  It was fantastic.  They had the same cookies and everything just like home.  Yummy!  We finished up lunch and headed to some of the gift shops around the area. I bought an "I Climbed the Great Wall" t-shirt. I know, I know, its cheezy and touristy, but I HAD to!!!! 

I one of the stores, we found an LSU Christmas ornament!  It was so weird.  There were no other University ornaments sold there.  We were going to buy it, but it was way too expensive and the lady wouldn't go down on her price. We took this as a sign that LSU will definitely win the National Championship! 
After this amazing find, we got back on the bus to downtown Beijing, where we found Cold Stone!!! YUMMY! I know I talk about food a lot, but you have to understand that having Western food was a real treat for us! In Huangshi all we have is KFC. Thats it! 

Day 3

What a way to begin your day! Panda hats and Starbucks!! These panda hats were everywhere in Beijing and became the first purchase of many as Camille and I discovered that were are phenomenal bargainers! Since we are foreign, they like to bump the prices up on us majorly, but we knew what they were doing and fought back. We also used a little bit the Chinese we have learned, which helped a lot. Most of the vendors spoke English, but it was still helpful to be able to ask "How much?" in Chinese which is duo shao qian and "too expensive" which is tai gui le. The woman we bought the hats from wanted 65 RMB for one hat and we ended up getting them for 10! Bam! After that, the shopping spree began! Day 3 in Beijing is what we refer to as Shop till you drop day, because literally by the end of the day I was sitting on the floor in the Pearl Market worn out from shopping, waiting on Camille to finish! This girl could have gone on forever! Understandably so as we were in a shopper's paradise!

We started at the Silk Market, which is like NYC China town on steroids.  They had anything and everything you can imagine including silk ties, silk scarves, shoes, purses, clothes, accessories, knockoffs (Ugg, Polo, Chanel, etc.)  It was amazing. We also went to the Pearl Market, which is similar to Silk Market but obviously with pearls and a lot more jewelry! (Mom, this is where I'll be taking you when you come to visit, you will LOVE it!)

This is Snack Street, which I mentioned earlier. We came here for a quick lunch before continuing our shopping spree. The funniest part is I just noticed that Camille was in the picture! haha

Snack street is known for the odd Chinese and foreign foods such as scorpions and bugs on a stick. The worst part is that the scorpions are still alive and are moving!!!! Eew. One vendor was trying to convince us to touch the scorpions and he promised it was ok, that the stingers had been removed. I then, maturely double dog dared Camille to touch it! You absolutely cannot turn down a double dog dare, so she did it!! I was so proud! Theres a picture of that on her blog if you would like to see it. (www.camillemorganchina.blogspot.com) 

fruit kabobs

Sea horse and starfish also on a stick. They really like to put things on sticks.

Panda hats and coconut drinks.

Crawfish and you guessed it.....on a stick!

Entrance to snack street! Crazy tourists!

On the way home we had hard sleepers instead of soft sleepers...this means slightly smaller beds and 6 beds to a room instead of 4 and it is also about half the price! As you can see, not quite as comfy!

Sorry this post is as long as a novel! That wraps up our trip to Beijing.  Although it was only a short 3 day trip, I am so glad we decided to go.  It was a much needed break for our routine.  There was so much we didn't get to see while we were there, so I think another trip to Beijing is in my future!