January 26, 2010
What an amazing day in Beijing! We woke up early, like usual and began our adventure. The first place we visited was the Temple of Heaven. On the way something so embarrassing happened to Victoria. She ate too much watermelon for breakfast, and got motion sickness on the bus. She ended up vomiting into a water bottle. I felt so bad for her! I helped her clean up the mess on the floor. We arrived at the Temple of Heaven and it was so beautiful. The Temple of Heaven was this oval building with steps surrounding it. The main colors were aqua blue and lime green, two of my favorites! We were given some time to walk around and experience the beauty. It was so neat to see the city from a slightly elevated point. The Temple of Heaven was made without a single screw!
We left the Temple of Heaven and headed to the site of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. I was so excited after seeing it all lit up last night. We still had to go through security, even though the site was not being used for anything specifically. The portal- potties were even high class! They were washing the outside of them as we were walking in. We got to see the Bird’s Nest from a pretty good distance away. It was a grand phenomenal structure. Parallel to it was the Water Cube. That was just as neat. I have never seen an Olympic Site before. Both are definitely much bigger than they look on TV! Li told us that they were thinking about making the Bird’s Nest a concert hall. Right now neither is being used for anything definite. We didn’t get to go inside the buildings because it costs so much money to do so.
After the Olympic journey, we headed to lunch. Lunch was a pretty typical lunch. I haven’t really enjoyed the meals in Beijing because many do not have a lot of vegetables. I feel like I’ve been living off of rice and watermelon!
After lunch we headed to the Summer Palace. The whole time I was freezing cold. If we had visited China in the spring, it would have been much more pleasant. The Summer Palace has a covering over a walkway that holds a Guinness Book World Record for most paintings in a structure. We saw a large marble boat there as well. Two of the most fascinating aspects of the Summer Palace was how old it is, but in what great shape it is in! While we were at the Summer Palace we saw a little child squatting in the middle of the walkway. As he stood up, it was obvious he had urinated. A lot of kids still walk around with slits in their pants. When they have to go to the restroom, they just “squat and drop it”. It is very different for us Americans, but perfectly normal for them.
We also saw that the whole pond that surrounds the Summer Palace was frozen. On an impulse, childish desire, we climbed the gate and walked on the frozen lake. It was frozen solid and there were many people walking around on it. Never will I have the chance to walk on a frozen lake, in China, ever again.
After the Summer Palace, we headed back to our hotel. A group of about 12 of us headed to one of the markets. We spent 2 hours there shopping around for various items. I got a few interesting items that I can’t wait to show everyone! For now, it’s a secret!
After that we came back to the hotel, grabbed a quick bite of stick food and went to sleep. We were flat out exhausted. I’m looking forward to tomorrow and our experience with Chinese medicine!
What an amazing day in Beijing! We woke up early, like usual and began our adventure. The first place we visited was the Temple of Heaven. On the way something so embarrassing happened to Victoria. She ate too much watermelon for breakfast, and got motion sickness on the bus. She ended up vomiting into a water bottle. I felt so bad for her! I helped her clean up the mess on the floor. We arrived at the Temple of Heaven and it was so beautiful. The Temple of Heaven was this oval building with steps surrounding it. The main colors were aqua blue and lime green, two of my favorites! We were given some time to walk around and experience the beauty. It was so neat to see the city from a slightly elevated point. The Temple of Heaven was made without a single screw!
We left the Temple of Heaven and headed to the site of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. I was so excited after seeing it all lit up last night. We still had to go through security, even though the site was not being used for anything specifically. The portal- potties were even high class! They were washing the outside of them as we were walking in. We got to see the Bird’s Nest from a pretty good distance away. It was a grand phenomenal structure. Parallel to it was the Water Cube. That was just as neat. I have never seen an Olympic Site before. Both are definitely much bigger than they look on TV! Li told us that they were thinking about making the Bird’s Nest a concert hall. Right now neither is being used for anything definite. We didn’t get to go inside the buildings because it costs so much money to do so.
After the Olympic journey, we headed to lunch. Lunch was a pretty typical lunch. I haven’t really enjoyed the meals in Beijing because many do not have a lot of vegetables. I feel like I’ve been living off of rice and watermelon!
After lunch we headed to the Summer Palace. The whole time I was freezing cold. If we had visited China in the spring, it would have been much more pleasant. The Summer Palace has a covering over a walkway that holds a Guinness Book World Record for most paintings in a structure. We saw a large marble boat there as well. Two of the most fascinating aspects of the Summer Palace was how old it is, but in what great shape it is in! While we were at the Summer Palace we saw a little child squatting in the middle of the walkway. As he stood up, it was obvious he had urinated. A lot of kids still walk around with slits in their pants. When they have to go to the restroom, they just “squat and drop it”. It is very different for us Americans, but perfectly normal for them.
We also saw that the whole pond that surrounds the Summer Palace was frozen. On an impulse, childish desire, we climbed the gate and walked on the frozen lake. It was frozen solid and there were many people walking around on it. Never will I have the chance to walk on a frozen lake, in China, ever again.
After the Summer Palace, we headed back to our hotel. A group of about 12 of us headed to one of the markets. We spent 2 hours there shopping around for various items. I got a few interesting items that I can’t wait to show everyone! For now, it’s a secret!
After that we came back to the hotel, grabbed a quick bite of stick food and went to sleep. We were flat out exhausted. I’m looking forward to tomorrow and our experience with Chinese medicine!
No comments:
Post a Comment