Beijing, China

I am very late in posting this and honestly it's because I took WAY too many pictures. I mean, really! I just couldn't get through them all let alone edit and pick only a few to document our trip. I have been procrastinating it for months, but now with a new year starting, it is only right to clear out my "blog post" cobwebs and start 2013 with a clean blog slate! 

Anyway, Patrick was booked on a business trip to Beijing and it just happened to coincide with our anniversary this year. So in September I hopped a plane and met him there for a weekend. One of the best things about this trip (not only that it was just the two of us!) was that while Patrick had to work, I got to explore the city on my own. 

And by that I mean, riding the subway with NO idea where I am going, and NO ONE to interpret! Seriously, not many people speak English there (who knew!?) and most definitely no one riding public transit. It was really fun!

We saw the famous Bird's Nest that was designed and built for the Olympics. It is truly a beautiful building!

 And as always, we had to get at least one photo of the two of us together. Just to prove we were there. 

 One of my favorite things to see around the city were these crates of milk. They are ceramic bottles filled with fresh milk with a paper lid glued to the top. You buy your milk (I didn't dare!) pop a straw through the top, and then when you are done, you leave it in the crate. I'm assuming they have a service that picks them up, washes them and takes them back to the dairy? I would have asked someone what the deal was, if anyone would have understood me. It kind of felt like I was in a silent movie most of the time. I didn't really talk to anyone on the days I was out by myself. It was so quiet, relaxing and challenged my coping skills!

 The first day there I had all to myself. Poor Patrick was stuck in the office. Since I only had 4 days I searched out what I absolutely must see. Summer Palace was top of the list. This is a beautiful historical area. With many buildings, a lake, and a bridge. This is a shot of Longevity Hill from across the lake. It's not the best photo as far as the building is concerned, but I was so amazed by the sky there, that I had to take it. So many people said that the weather was perfect for the few days I was there. Usually the visibility is poor and the air quality is only bearable. There was only one day where I had trouble breathing, but this day at Summer Palace was clear, breezy and gorgeous.

 Here's the sunset by the bridge. Just to the right and left of me is a swarm of photographers all snapping away. I guess I wasn't the only one amazed at the beauty of the weather. In fact it was hard to stand my ground. There were so many people it was easy to get pushed around! But I managed just fine. Being in a place that's not great with their social etiquette has really helped me be assertive. Maybe overly so. We are considered angry Ang Mo's here. (that slang for white person. uh, but its not derogatory... or so they say ;). It's hard to get what you want unless you just take it, and that requires a bit of rudeness, and dare I say, anger? It's a skill I have been honing since my first months in New York. I'm getting more and more assertive by the day. Soon I won't have any friends!

Ok, moving on....One of the street foods you find is baked sweet potatoes. They have these bike carts with a tin bbqer on the back. The smell is fabulous. I never did buy one because they were huge but I did think it would be great to just walk out for the day and buy up a sweet potato for a meal. Would that be great? Maybe not since there wasn't any butter or brown sugar for sprinkling.

 Here is the top of the Tower of Buddhist Incense. Gorgeous building. With an amazing statue inside. Which you are not supposed to take a photo of, hence no photo...

The second day we headed to Tian'anman Square. It, (and the picture of Chairman Mao) is the entrance to Forbidden City. We chose to walk around the block and north to the hillside above to look into Forbidden City instead. We watched another beautiful sunset from a pagoda and finished out the night with some amazing chinese food. The hilarity of the day was trying to order ice with our soda. People in this part of the world are not big ice consumers (all that Chinese medicine stuff) so just asking for it is odd enough, but especially if you don't know the word in Chinese. We did a lot of pointing and pantomiming. It was so embarrassing. We had a tour guide with us the next day that was happy to let us know how to say it.... "bing"!

Our tour guide took us up to the Great Wall of China. There are a few sections of the wall designated for tourist and the rest of it is cut off to the public. The downfall of this is the amount of people you encounter at the designated sights. You have to navigate them as you try to learn and explore this amazing piece of history. Luckily we didn't go to the closest place but there were still a lot of people roaming around, and it does ruin a bit of the charm of the whole thing, especially when you see how littered and graffitied it can get from disrespectful people. I mean this is some serious history! The disrespect of some people is astonishing! I guess there aren't many places left in the world that are untouched by throngs of people. But regardless, it is a sight to behold!

 Again, the sky was just amazing. We took a sky ride up to the top and then, just for an added tourist attraction, there is a luge ride down to the bottom. I felt like I was at an amusement park! A park attraction that just happens to be built around 220 BC! (well, parts at least) It was such an odd blend of the "old and new" world. 

After our hiking around the Great Wall we went to eat at a local restaurant. This was a sight to see. They had this fish pond where you can catch your meal. You string your pole and wait for a fish to bite.

Then you bring it over to this lovely lady who beats it to death with a stick in the parking lot. It was one of the more violent things I have witnessed in my life. Sometimes it would only take one whack. Other times she would go at that poor fish over and over before placing the fatal blow.

After death, they weigh the fish so they know what to charge you and then send it to be cooked up. Here is the weighing station. Honestly, it kind of makes me sick seeing it again. There was just little pools of blood all over this place. Poor fishies.

 It took us forever getting a shot of us with the Wall in the background. But we did it. Proof that it actually happened. What a bunch of dorks.

 The last day I made it out to Temple of Heaven. I feel bad that Patrick missed it. It was beautiful weather again and such an amazing place to be. A lot like Summer Palace but with so many local people just hanging out living life. There were women in knitting groups, men playing board games, Chinese musicians playing for local crowds,  groups doing Tai Chi and elderly woman playing hacky-sack (or their version of it which requires a metal rings attached to feathers) Just about every kind of person you can think of! It was just bursting with life. This man below had a sponge on the end of a stick and a bucket of water. He walked around writing Chinese. This was the only time I really wished I knew Chinese! It was so lovely to watch him gracefully writing out each stroke and then seeing it fade in the sunshine.

Here is the famous and amazing Temple of Heaven. It really was heaven too. The sky was so clear. Not a cloud (as you can see) and not too crowded either. I couldn't spend too much time in one place because there was so much there to see before having to catch my flight later that day.  But it was another introspective and educational day for me. I loved just people watching! I was so rejuvenated after this trip. What an amazing culture, and I hadn't even scratched the surface in my 4 days there. After this I made a mad dash to the Pearl Market and did some shopping. Nothing like some good old fashioned haggling to round out my trip. After an hour I was exhausted! So I flew home, straight into the arms of my crazy children. Patrick stayed for another week to finish up work. It was the perfect trip to help ease the pain of him being gone for so long and it was only after I got home that I realized it had been our anniversary! So happy 12 year "surprise" anniversary to us! Thank you Beijing!