Beijing Day 3: Great Wall 北京第三天：撞道口长城

(View of the village from one of the tower's on the wall.)

(Look at how steep it is! It looks as though it's a straight drop, but looks can be deceiving!)

(A part of the wall photographed from the collapsed tower in the top of the lower photo.)

(On the wall!)

(A frozen part of the nearby river that runs along the village below the Wall.)

(The gate in the wall that the village of 撞道口[joo-ahng dao koh] is famous for.)

（This is a little street in the practically empty village near the Great Wall, this sign says "May Mao Live for 10,000 Years!" It is probably still left over from the Cultural Revolution days.)

This part of our travels through Beijing was incredible! We couldn't believe that we had actually CLIMBED the Great Wall! Because the part of the wall we went to was less traveled (no one was on the wall but us!) there weren't any stairs leading up to it. Diego, Taotao, Carina, and I walked through the tiny cluster of houses (past big scary barking dogs, thankfully they were chained up!) then hiked up a mountain pass to the gate in the wall (pictured above). The gate in the wall is what this little village is famous for apparently.

The feeling that I experienced when I mounted the wall was breathtaking. I was a part of a huge feat that stretches across the better part of China. Also the sky was clear and not so cold. Taotao took many pictures of us with his fancy camera. We left him where we mounted the wall (his legs are bad). In total we explored two little towers of the wall. One tower had completely collapsed! Most of the time we didn't speak, just admired the wall and the view from it.

An hour or two passed....we hiked down the pass, got into the car and fell asleep. The day was quite exhausting!

Beijing Day 3： 798 Modern Art Factory 第三天：七九八艺术中心

This part of my Beijing Extravaganza deserves its own post! The 798 Modern Art factory was at first a government owned factory. Maybe a weapons factory, I am not entirely sure. It was abandoned after a while and was later rediscovered by modern artists. It was taken over and turned upsidedown into a sort of underground-modern art-escapade! Now it is officially recognized by the government. However it still remains a creative hub and has an alluring artistic feel. This was one of my favorite parts of this trip. I have been wanting to go here forever! Another caption and picture post! We went early one cold Beijing morning. I was armed with jackets and my camera, ready to experience Chinese modern art up close.

请从下面开始读。Read from the bottom and make you're way up!



(A garden/park next to the factory.)

(Statue.)

(We happened to run into a film crew! They were recording an advertisement for cameras I think. Because the man and the woman [foreigners] walk up to each other and comment [in English] on a camera that the woman is holding.)

(Graffiti.)

(More ice made from dripping pipes.)

(Road through 798.)

(Support the People's Revolution Against the Capitalist Art World! Just kidding, just kidding. I don't know if this statue was made by artists or by the government when the factories were built.)

(More graffiti. What I think is interesting is that I hardly saw any graffiti that used Chinese, most was in English or Scribbles.)

(Two fashionably dressed mysterious individuals standing in front of a very big brick wall. I like this picture.)

(Water dripping from a pipe has slowly created a stalagmite of ice! Natural art!)

(The main factory hall that started it all. I don't know why there aren't any paintings up. This is the most famous part of 798. The red writing at the top of the picture says "May Chairman Mao live to be 10,000 years old!" and then it goes on too say "and then 20,000 more years!")

(All over 798 graffiti is the main form of decoration. It doesn't look anything like graffiti one sees in the USA. Maybe because this graffiti is for different purposes? Such as art.)

(I don't really even know what is going on here. This building was just on the way to one of the main galleries we were going to see.)

("Originality Square" factory-esque buildings to the side. Would Andy Warhol be jealous? I am.)

(The main drag of 798 still has that factory feel to it. The center used to be a factory, then it was abandoned, later modern artists took it over for work space. Now it is an art center. Still really cool.) (Giant near the main drag of 798.)

(This painting, yes painting, brought back many memories of playing Super Mario Bros with my dad when I was little. I would have bought this!)

(Making a disapproving face at a slightly risque statue.)

(Painting in one of the galleries, the background is the Forbidden City. It looks like a hand that has somehow found a hole in our demention.)

(From left to right: Our financial sponsor/friend Taotao, his girlfriend/our friend Lulu, Ms. Ma my AFS teacher)

（Our breakfast that morning consisted of bread-cakes and pork dumplings. You dip the pork dumplings in vinegar and it is just heavenly! Especially when restaurants have poor heating!)

Beijing Day 2 Part 2 北京第二天，第二部分

After the Forbidden City we were invited to dinner by fairly well-off Chinese factory owners. We had our own private room for dinner and had a glass wall to view the performances in the main hall. The dinner was full of mirth and laughter. Many jokes about Chinese people and foreigners alike. After dinner we were taken to the Water Cube and the Bird's Nest to be touristy! It was a lot of fun. Took many silly photos (see below). Soon after they whisked us off to Beijing's best bar (Mix) that is owned by one of the factory owner's friends. It was a lot of fun, and even better that other people were treating us.

(Puppet performance at the restaurant, telling the story of the courting of two lovers.)

(BIRD'S NEST!)

(Water Cube! Dragon Ball Z pose.)

don't worry a more serious post to follow ^.^

Beijing Day 2 (Forbidden City) 北京第二天 (故宫）

请从下面开始读。Start reading from the bottom!

Unfortunately the Forbidden City is too amazing and all too beautiful to describe with words. So this blog post will be picture and caption oriented! I hope you enjoy it regardless of its lack of text! I had a great time here, and if you ever have a chance to visit Beijing, go!



(One of the seats for the Emperor, just for watching Peiking Opera.)

(Ceremonial crown of the Emperor it weighs 2kg. Which is like 5 pounds-ish.)

(Alleyway in the Forbidden City, long long long!)

(View from the main buildings from a less important courtyard, can you see the smog?)

(With our tour guide. English name: Aleen.)

(Dragon wall, the maker of this wall was only given a limited time by one of the Emperors. Right before the completion date one of the ceramic slabs fell off. Painted wood replicas replaced it, luckily the Emperor didn't find out or it would have been off with the craftman's head!)

(Bedroom of the Dowager Empress, Suxi [su-shi] or Dragon Lady. She ruled for 48 years.)

(An interesting doorway in one of the courtyards that housed the concubines.)

(Beautiful gate coming out of one of the courtyards that housed some of the Emperor's concubines. I think one of thos children in the background is sneaking a picture of me!)

(The back garden. Located behind all the buildings that were used for official business. Here the Emperor and people who were allowed in could stroll around the garden. The last emperor to live in the Forbidden City was the first to begin learning English, he was also the first to ride a bike. His English name was Henry. His wife? Elizabeth.)

(Throne room where all the official business went down!)

(These dragon heads served as gutters, in Ancient China it was believed that dragons breathed water. When it was raining the Emperor would come outside to admire these fountain heads that doubled as gutters. This is all according to our English/Chinese speaking tour guide we hired for 200 yuan.)

(Voila! The Forbidden City! Breathtaking!)

(In front of one of the buildings used for formal ceremonies such as announcing imperial exam results, throwing banquets for officials, etc. From left to right: Diego (from Brazil, also live in Chongqing), Me, and Ms. Ma. The hall behind us is called the Hall of Supreme Harmony. 太和门 tai-huh-men)

(Through one of the gates in the city, note the cieling!)

(After breakfast of beef noodles, we walked a 5-10 minute walk to the entrance of the Forbidden City! I was super excited and my hunger was quelled!)

Beijing Day 1 北京欢迎你 第一天

(Our hotel room! That's Diego the Brazilian behind me!)

(the entrance to the forbidden city, located in front of Tian'anmen Square!)

(后海 [ho-high] bar street)

(Ah! I almost died when I saw this dog being pushed along in a stroller, I had to take its picture. It reminded me of my own dog, Molly, back home.)

(One of the most famous Beijing 烤鸭 [kao-ya] roasted duck places. very very tasty!)

(The entrance to the forbidden city at sunset.)

Day One: Beijing

Our flight to Beijing was the scariest flight I have ever partaken in while being in China. Hainan Airlines, beware of the red and yellow logo that is Hainan Airlines. We left Chongqing in the early afternoon. As we were taking off I couldn't help but notice that the plane kept tipping from one side to another quite rapidly. The Chinese people on the plane were looking a bit anxious, and you know something is super scary if the Chinese start to flip out. We never really stabilized until the plane got to cruising altitude. The crew blamed turbulence...but I am not so easily decieved!

(The landing was just as scary, and the overhead compartments looked as though they were about to fall down, yeesh!).

Once we arrived and collected our baggage we headed out of the terminal only to be greeted by a friend of a friend of a friend in his Infiniti SUV to take us to our hotel (北京饭店 The Beijing Hotel). We were very fortunate to have such good friends on this trip. [My AFS coordinator (Ms. Ma) accompanied Diego (my Brazilian friend) and me to go to Beijing, but she also invited her friend Lulu and Taotao (who are a couple). It just so happens that Taotao is very rich and owns a cement factory. He is very kind and has a good sense of humor. He also PAID for our hotel, which would normally cost more than 1000yuan each night, and is a 5 star hotel. We weren't planning on staying in such an expensive hotel...but Ms. Ma informed us shortly before we left that for 3 nights we wouldn't have to worry about the hotel bill. However the last night we stayed in a significantly cheaper hotel because Taotao and Lulu returned to Chongqing.]

The Beijing Hotel is where Nixon stayed when he visited China way back when. We put our stuff in our rooms and relaxed for a few minutes then Ms. Ma fetched us to go see Tian'anmen Square.

Our hotel was only about an eight minutes walk from the square and we got there just as the sun was setting. After snapping a few photos the police shoved the crowd out of the way so they could begin the flag lowering ceremony as the sun finished setting. We stood in the windy coldness for about 20 minutes and nothing happened so we walked across the street to meet my British friend Benjamin (who also happened to be spending some time away from Chongqing in Beijing before he went home to visit the UK).

It took ages to find a taxi willing to get us near to this famous Beijing roast duck restaurant! It was worth it though, in the end we had our own room, my AFS friend Carina from Germany joined us (she lives in Beijing with a host family). What I really liked about the restaurant was its location. It's located in an old Beijing style courtyard house（四合院儿 si-huh-yu'ar literally: four harmony courtyard). These houses are slowly disappearing to accomidate apartment buildings, some are being preserved though. The feel was very "old Beijing." Courtyard houses were the houses not too long ago in Beijing.

Carina went home, and we sauntered on down to 后海 Houhai [say:ho-high] a famous bar street along a lake in Beijing. The name means back-sea. Ms. Ma left us because she was not feeling well so Ben, Diego, and I popped into a more laid-back sofa-ish bar, listened to a man and a woman sing karaoke. They sang pretty well, then I realized that they must have been hired by the bar to entertain because they were the only ones singing. Kerry (another Brit) joined us and we chatted about our upcoming travel plans during this month long holiday for Chinese New Years.

Later we took a taxi back to the hotel. The next day Lulu and Taotao (our sponsors in a certain sense) would arrive, plus we needed sleep since we planned to get up early and see the Forbidden City.