China - Day One

China was amazing. Fantastic. Awesome. I didn't want to come home. Now granted, we were only in Beijing for three and a half days which is just one tiny portion of the vastness of China. It's like saying you've been to New York City and have seen all of America. Beijing was incredible but I won't be satisfied until I've seen more of China. And being married to a man who loves nothing better than to speak Chinese, I'm sure I'll get another chance to spend time in China. I really can't wait to go back.

I really wanted to go to China before our baby is born and time was starting to slip away when we heard about this tour package through David's work. Now normally, I'm not a fan of those big tour groups that clog up all the tourist spots and take you everywhere on a big bus. But because we had such a short time to spend in China and because the tour package was such a great deal, we had to do it. So everything just worked out perfectly. We packed a whole bunch into those three days.

We woke up ridiculously early on Saturday morning, took a bus to the airport, and boarded our Asiana flight to Beijing. After a two hour flight, we landed in Beijing's massive Capital Airport (newly expanded for the Olympics) and waited in line to go through immigration. We went on a group visa so we had to go through in groups. It took forever. (But it took even longer to leave the country.) Once through immigration, we got our bags, exchanged money, and met our tour guides. There were three buses and I think we picked the right one. Our tour guide, Bibo, was fantastic and said some very interesting things about China which I'll talk about later.

Our first stop on our tour was lunch at a Catonese-style restaurant. In China, you get a bowl for rice and soup, a tea cup, a small plate, chopsticks, and one tiny glass of water, Coke or Sprite. Then, they pile 8-10 different dishes onto the Lazy Susan and you grab what you want to eat and go to town. Even though everyone in our tour group lives in Korea, I swear some of these people must never venture out of their comfort zone because some people seriously struggled with eating with chopsticks (although most of the restaurants did provide forks) and they complained constantly about the bathrooms (mostly squatter toilets) and the levels of sanitation. You're in Asia, people. Not America. Very different standards. Bibo just laughed when people asked her why the toilets were so nasty because they've greatly improved in the last ten years. They used to be just holes in the ground. At least now you can actually flush them.

After lunch, we headed to the Forbidden City, which was the palace complex of the emperors, called the Forbidden City because no one was allowed to enter it without the emperor's permission. It sits in the center of Beijing and the rest of the city is laid out in rings around the Forbidden City. We didn't know it at the time, but we came in through the back entrance. It's a massive complex, full of throne rooms, bedrooms, and other official buildings.

The garden, in the back, was my favorite part perhaps because it actually had trees and vegetation and the rest of the Forbidden City was all brick and stone and wood. Plus, it was really hot. I was not prepared for how hot Beijing would be. Plus, we were there on one of the rare weeks when there were blue skies instead of just smog and haze.

A lot of the Forbidden City has been renovated and re-done, but there are still spots where you can see that nothing has been touched for hundreds of years.

This is one of the main palace buildings but don't ask me which one. I was mostly focusing on staying out of the sun and keeping somewhat cool at this point in the tour.

Massive courtyard. Not surprisingly, everyplace we went with few exceptions were quite crowded.

Which made getting good photos somewhat of a challenge but you get the idea.

We spent about 1.5 to 2 hours wandering through the Forbidden City before we came out of the main gate. By this time, I was melting so we quickly ran into one of the little tourist stands set up along the way and bought an ugly straw hat. I didn't care how it looked....I just wanted the hat with the biggest brim. Thankfully, the hat and some sunscreen I borrowed from a fellow member spared me from getting any sunburns though David did get a little red.

Across the street from the Forbidden City's main entrance is Tiananmen Square. Of course, they've got a huge picture of Mao hanging up on the gate.

Tiananmen Square is just that, a huge open square. (Yet one highly secured area. You can't enter the square without having your bags scanned and there are literally ten camera on each lamp post.) I understand why, of course, being the site of a massacre during the 1989 student uprisings in China, but it seemed like such a peaceful, uneventful place when we were there. (And, according to Bibo, not as crowded as it usually is.)

In the center of the square, though, is Mao's mausoleum where you can view Mao's body (or wax copy....no one is sure which is actually on display). It was too late in the day for us to pay our respects to the Chairman which is probably for the best.

There are two big statues outside the mausoleum, a tribute to the workers of China.



Tiananmen Square is bordered by two huge national museums and several older, western style buildings. This one was once the old train station and is now the Beijing Train Museum.

After sweltering in the heat for nearly four hours, we gladly boarded our buses once again and were taken to an acrobatic show. I wasn't particularly excited for the show but it proved to be a very interesting hour of entertainment. It's absolutely amazing what these people can do with their bodies, especially the girls. For the big finale, they had one of those huge spherical metal cages in which a motorcycle rider rides around in circles all along the sides and top. After a few minutes, a second motorcycle rider showed up and joined the other one. And then a third came. And a fourth. And then a fifth! I was sure they were all going to crash and there was going to be carnage and wreckage all over the stage. I almost couldn't watch but of course, I couldn't look away either. Crazy.

After the acrobatic show, we were taken to a hotel restaurant for a Peking Duck special dinner. I normally don't care much for duck (it tastes rather greasy to me) but I thought this was pretty good. I really enjoyed almost all the food we ate in China, which was a nice change after my disastrous culinary experience in Taiwan. But really, I think it has to be mostly blamed on being newly pregnant and nauseous. Luckily, I'm in the state now where I'll eat just about anything if I'm hungry enough.

After our dinner, we finally got to check into our hotel. It was located about two miles away from the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. It had very nice accommodations and a fantastic breakfast every morning with everything from waffles and french toast to eggs and bacon, fresh fruit, breads, and typical Chinese fare.

The interior of the hotel.

Our hotel room. Unfortunately, I forgot to get a better shot during the day, but the room was very nice. And our bed was surprisingly comfortable. All the beds we slept on in Taiwan were rather hard. But after the exhausting pace we kept each day, the bed felt heavenly. We also got a few channels in English--including CNN--which our guide told us is available to foreign guests in hotels, but regular Chinese cannot get access to it.

The view of Beijing from our hotel. I guess Beijing has really changed a lot in the last ten years, since that's when most of these buildings were built.

Now, what I find funny about every hotel I've stayed in in Asia is that the rooms are always very nicely decorated and well-maintained and the bathrooms are sad, pathetic, small little holes. (Okay, so not that bad, but they're nothing special either.) The bathtub is always too small and the showerhead is always set too short, the toilet is serviceable (at least it's not a squatter) and the tile is always dingy. Yet despite all this, they always provide you with all the toiletries you could possibly need. They don't stop at just some soap and shampoo, they also provide toothbrushes, toothpaste, combs, razors, shower caps, and lotions. So that's cool.

After taking a shower, David and I fell gratefully into bed around 10pm and got much needed rest until it began all over again. Day two, the Great Wall. Coming up soon.