Rubbing Elbows With Commies

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A Lunar New Year holiday gave everyone in Korea a 4 day weekend, so I joined up with a travel agency's tour to BEIJING, CHINA! Me and 140 of my comrades. Yes, it was big.

We flew into Beijing on Saturday, January 24th. The flight from Busan was only 2 hours and 20 minutes. It's weird to have China so close. I'm used to thinking of it on the "other side" of the world. Guess that's where I live now, hm. We touched down, found our guide (a Chinaman named Mike) and ran for the tour bus. Brittany, Karen, Alyssa, Haley, Matt and I comandeered the back, and I had flashbacks of elementary school field trips. We headed straight for the Temple of Heaven, which is a large Taoist temple built from 1406 to 1420 during the reign of the Yongle Empoeror, who also built the Forbidden City. The different buildings had fun names like "Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests" or "Imperial Vault of Heaven." The Chinese are so poetic! Also interesting is the fact that it is built entirely of wood, without nails. Oooh, ahhhh.

After that we went to dinner, which was Peking duck and other assorted dishes slung about on a Lazy Susan. Yum. Then we went to our 5 Star - yes, count em, FIVE - hotel, the Loong Palace Hotel. Brittany and I had a mild heart attack when we saw our room, with 2 big plush beds, and BATH and a SHOWER!! It was very exciting! I took a bath each day we were there. Ha. Had an early night, since wake up call was 6am!

Woke up to a huge continental buffet breakfast - yes! Then it was straight to the jade factory. Jade is really important to the Chinese - it is used to keep the dragons away, and to bring good luck. Back in the day, when someone died, each hole in the body was covered with a piece of jade. Weird, huh? It was cool seeing all the pieces of work, and seeing the two people that were working, but it did feel a bit like we were being taken there to shop. And shop some people did! But I was saving my money for the knock offs later on.

Then we headed to the Summer Palace. It has the largest garden in the world! Sadly, it is winter now, and there was not much blooming; however, you could see the potential beauty and I wish I could see it again in the spring. We wandered in and out of the grounds, peeked inside buildings and generally shivered from the cold. The lake was more than halfway frozen. And I, being absent-minded, left my newly-knitted scarf on the bus. I made that scarf just for China - it is seriously almost a blanket, so warm and cozy. On the way inside the palace, there was a choir belting out beautiful music to the accompaniment of an accordion. Random, but nice.

After a few hours there, we left for the pearl factory. Pretty much the same story as the jade place - not too exciting. Then we went to the Silk Factory- which is the market where you buy knock off goods. I went a little nutso, and I bought a killer purse and two pairs of
Converses for a mere grand total of $35. Good day! It was crazy haggling - those vendors were very aggressive. Then we had another great dinner - this time it was Mongolian hot pot - which is a giant pot you add whatever you want into it to cook like vegetables and different meats, including chicken and lamb. After dinner we went to the Acrobatic show, which was ridiculous. I gasped just about every 2 seconds and continuously smacked the poor guy sitting next to me, saying, "Did you SEE that???" Which of course, he had. Haha. My new super zoom lens that I splurged on the night before I left (don't judge me, I NEEDED it!!) came in really handy since we were sitting up in the nosebleeds. Here's a sample, more on picasa. I really enjoyed the show. Then it was back to the hotel. We contemplated trying to go out, but ended up enjoying the fireworks that the hotel put on for us at midnight. There were a few young firefighters right by us (around 18 years old), who were making fun of us oohing and ahhing. Suddenly we looked up and saw a small bush fire about 4 feet wide. Brit, Karen, and I start shouting, "Get the fire! Put it out!" And I have never seen two more incompetent firemen in my life! Those boys looked so shocked and confused and seriously bumped into each other 4 times trying to grab their extinguishers. We ran after them to see the action, but we were all stopped by the older, experienced firefighters. The two youngins turned to us and said, "Be careful!" We laughed right in their face, and said, "Naw, dude, YOU be careful!" They resumed their posts with stoicism.

The next morning began at 6:30 and we headed straight to the GREAT WALL! It was unbelievable. It's hard to comprehend seeing something that you've read about since you were eight years old, and knowing that it isn't a dream. I had to take a "moment" on the wall to try to get my head around that, but it was still pretty far out. We began the hike up the wall, and yes, do I mean hike. For some reason, I thought there'd be some stairs, then a leisurely stroll, then more stairs, etc. etc. Nope. The section of the wall we were on was pretty much ALL stairs going straight up! My thighs were a-burnin. Good thing I've been doing hapkido or I would have been a goner for sure. After 2 1/2 hours of traversing the GREAT WALL (sorry, still such a big deal, ya know!?), we packed back into the bus and headed to the FORBIDDEN CITY (also a big deal :-D).

The FORBIDDEN CITY was glorious. So huge and ornate and packed with history. It is 600 years old and the last emperor was driven out in 1925. Odd to think that that was less that 100 years ago. It looks totally out of place, with tall skyscrapers and modern buildings lurking right outside. It seemed like the entire city was there to play tourist, so it was hard to move, harder to get a good picture, and easy to lose the group. I fought my way to the forefront many a time. It was also interesting hearing the tales of concubines, eunuchs, betrayal and murder, all in one hour! My favorite was of the concubine who became empress. As Mike was telling the story, I suddenly realized, Hey, I've read this book! Somewhere along the line, I read a novel about this lady. I always knew reading was good for me. The FB is set in the direct center of Beijing, and is a large rectangle. We passed through rooms and courtyards in a straight line until we emptied into the Tian An Men Square.

Mind boggling, it was. Big enough to fit 3 million people at one time, Tian An Men Square is a bit daunting. A large picture of the Communist Party's Chariman Mao Zedong sits at one end, and his mausoleum rests in the middle. We wandered around for a while, and I took pictures of the soldiers and children. They're the most interesting. Especially little children: oddly enough, small Chinese children wear pants with a split down the backside and no underwear. So they're running around and you get little glimpses of butt cheek. Why, you ask? So, they can pop a squat anywhere they need to, of course! Crazy, yes. Useful? Possibly. Will this trend make it to America? Let's hope not.

Then it was onward to dinner, and back to the hotel. I took a nap, a bath, and hung out with friends until it was time for bed. We had to get up at 5:00 to make it to our 9:30am flight! Yikes! I tried to have a normal day on Tuesday, but I feel asleep for a nap at 4 and didn't wake up until it was time for work the next day at 630. Now that is what I call a good trip!

See all the pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/k.a.sheridan01/AmongstTheCommiesBeijing#

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