Beijing Vacation!

Tianamen Square 

Hey everyone! Sorry this post is so late! Internet's been a pain to deal with and it took me a while to find the photos I wanted to use. So here's my story about my Beijing vacation. It was full of crazy moments, both good and bad, but overall, I'd have to say it was a success. 

So we started out by going to Xian, hoping to see the Terra Cotta Warriors. Unfortunately our train ride ended up being 29 hours long instead of just 20 hours long. So that time that we planned to see the Warriors was spent on a train, and since we had a flight for Beijing the next morning, we couldn't go to the Warriors. We were bummed, but there wasn't much we could do. On the plus side, we made great friends with some people on the train and we got to see a little of Xian. 

We got to Beijing on Friday, and we spent the afternoon wandering around the area our hostel was in. We were close to Tianamen Square and the Forbidden City. There were these cool shopping areas that we walked around. We found a market area that was basically in these alleys  where you could get a bunch of souvenirs. That was pretty sweet, there was everything from necklaces to figurines to flutes to even these little gel heating packs. 

I was surprised by how clear it was in Beijing. I expected it to be seriously smoggy with gray skies the whole time. But when I was there, the sky was clear and sunny. Maybe it was because we were in a more tourist part of town, but it was nothing like I expected. I also expected the place to be absolutely packed, especially since it was a holiday. However, while there were a lot of people, it didn't feel overly crowded to me. It could be because I'm more used to crazy crowds, so I don't notice them as much, but I really didn't feel like it was too crowded, even at the tourist sites.  

The Lama Temple

Saturday, we hit a bunch of tourist sites. We went to Tianamen Square, the Forbidden City, the Lama Temple,and the Temple of Heaven. The Forbidden City was really cool, but huge. It consists of the buildings where the old royalty used to live. There are some beautiful ornate buildings in there. The Lama Temple is a Buddhist temple, with monks and everything. There are buildings that have statues of Buddha that people go to worship. They burn incense outside the buildings too. It was interesting to see all the different statues of Budda. They have one for health, fortune, medicine, the Buddha of divine light, etc. One of the buildings had a huge statue of Buddha. I think it was over 70 feet and carved out of a single sandalwood tree.It was incredible to see. The Temple of Heaven was fun and had a bunch of buildings besides the actual temple. 

Me at the Great Wall

Sunday, we went to the Summer's Palace and the Pearl Market. The Summer's Palace is also where royalty used to live, though I'm not sure which era. It's huge! It even has a lake in the middle of the grounds. There were so many buildings for different purposes from worshiping to living to entertaining. The Pearl Market is a place where you can bargain with people and get things for pretty cheap. I bought a lot of stuff there, such as gifts for people, shoes, scarves, and headphones. They have everything from clothes to watches, to tea sets, and of course pearls. It's a building that has four levels of shopping, which I have to say is pretty awesome. It was seriously so fun to bargain with the people there. 

Monday was the Great Wall! We went with a tour since it was easier that way and we didn't have to worry about finding a way to get there. This tour took us to a more remote part of the wall that not many people go to. It's really cool because this part looks a bit older and it wasn't that crowded. It was crazy to see this wall and try to imagine all the history that went on. It's a little humbling. Oh and I spat off the wall, just because, well, I could. 

We also met some really awesome people from Australia that were also teaching English. They were working on getting their teaching degree. Actually, I met a lot of interesting people on this trip. I met an English guy who was traveling and writing a book, a German guy who was traveling all over China, and some people from North Carolina who were studying acupuncture. It was really fun to see all the different types of people and hear their stories. 

I wasn't kidding about the tarantula

And finally, the craziest part: I ate a scorpion and a tarantula on a stick! Yeah, there's this night market that sells all kinds of foods. Most of it's normal like dumplings and grilled meats, but they had some crazy stuff like scorpions, snakes, starfish, seahorse, and even bat. So I tried a scorpion and a tarantula. They didn't taste bad. The tarantula tasted like burnt french fries, and the scorpion legs tasted like burnt bacon. The body was gross though. Anyway, that was awesome! It was fun to see the reactions of people walking by when they saw me eating the tarantula. 

So overall, the vacation was an awesome one. I loved Beijing and I would love to go back there one day and hit more of the sights. Well that's it for this post. Until later, folks!