Part 1: Sights and Sounds: The Summer Palace

Sadly, my friend Jenna recently returned to the US, but before she went we tackled one more sight in Beijing with a few other gals. That being the Summer Palace in the north east part of the the city about 45 minutes from where I live (yes Beijing is HUGE). Before heading there I stopped off in the Wudouko area to meet a new friend of a friend for lunch at a hip little student hang-out called 'Lush.' Lush had 10Y (approx $1.20) Guinness for St. Patrick's Day, I still opted for a jasmine tea.

The Summer Palace is on the outskirts of town and includes one of the few hills around. This made for a great view after a great many stairs. The park is very large and many of the areas are quite tricky to pose for pictures in which allowed us to actually get some shots with only one human being in them! After we climbed up the face of the palace we strolled down the hill on the other side of the park to very long walkway on the water. There were many Chinese tourist groups all wearing hats of the same color, they looked strangely to be the same height as well as a matter of fact.

Later that night, though we were pooped, we pulled ourselves together for an evening on the town. I had my best meal since being in Beijing at a middle-eastern restaurant called 1001 Nights. I had minjedra, lebneh, fattoush, mouaka, baba ganoush, you name it! On top of it all there were belly dancers as well! After I hit the dance floor at Slasa Caribe, I do not claim to know how to salsa but I did my best and we met some LA Dodgers salsa-ing as well who were in town for the first ever national baseball league game in China against the San Diego Padres (they are trying to promote 'America's favorite past-time' (baseball) in China). All in all, a pretty great day.

Part 1: Sights and Sounds: Temple of Heaven and Donghuamen Night Market

Tourist sight numero dos on the list was the Temple of Heaven, a large park with a series of temples, altars and such. I cannot do justice to explaining these places so please feel free to open another window and Google them at anytime because all I will offer are silly details, cheesy jokes and unprofessional images of them and myself in this blog.

The Temple of Heaven is only one temple of many at this wonderful park in the southeast of Beijing, I guess one can say it is the grandest. This is where important people would come and pray for a good harvest when that sort of thing was still very important. It was very nice to see trees and even nicer to witness local Chinese people playing games, singing, doing water calligraphy and best of all dancing on this lovely afternoon. Jenna and I even played a little game of ping-pong without the table.

After walking through the park and some of the temples, which by the way I may add requires a ticket purchase with additional fees per temple, we headed down the hill following the sound of music. Lined up in a covered ancient outdoor hallway were many small groups of older Chinese folks doing artsy fartsy things. My favorite was an old man acting out a play with tons of expression and lip singing why two older women stood on the side and sang. That's also when I first spotted the water calligraphy on the floor (I later found the culprit as well).

On the way home we somehow stumbled across the Donghuamen Night Market, the place one goes to eat fried sea urchin, scorpions, starfish and other yummies on a stick. Though it was not night, the market lived up to its reputation. It was loud and bustling with many tourists and courageous ones at that...I mean I always thought scorpions where poisonous. Needless to say I only went near to snap a photo (sorry to let anyone down). Right outside the market was a more modern mall called Oriental plaza which was swarming in Olympic paraphernalia, please send all orders to my email, I charge a 25% service fee.

Part 1: Sights and Sounds: Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City

In an effort to catch-up on the past few weeks I am taking a two-blog approach. Welcome to Part 1: Sights and Sounds where I will take you on a roller coaster ride of the famous touristic sights of Beijing. You see, while I was not blogging I was busy working, making new friends, learning to tell the taxi driver how to get me home and most importantly for these purposes--seeing more of Beijing.

It was not difficult to decide where to go first, I met my friend in the center of Beijing to see immense Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City....along with thousands of other people who were doing the same. This brings me to a common theme on doing anything in Beijing, despite how creative I think I am or how many restaurants this city boasts there are bound to be tons of other people around going through the same motions in a different language.

Beijing is as flat as a pancake, with maybe a couple little blueberries or chocolate chips depending on your preference. Tiananment Square is a massive area with some impressive monuments with great meaning that I cannot do justice to. I made a mental note to arrive at all other tourist destinations much earlier in the morning to perhaps see them with less obstacles. There was a huge line twisting and turning through the square to see Mao embalmed, we passed and took pictures under his huge face instead.

After soaking in the square we made our way over to the Forbidden City which is right beside the square (hence doing them at one time). This was my first time at a tourist destination and my first time being a major target for people wanting to sell things, I don't think it helped that I was with a very tall blond gal either (sorry J :)). The Forbidden City is an ancient city within a city. There are numerous palaces, courtyards, bridges and on and on. In preparation for the Olympics, alot of the city was covered for one reason or another, but of the parts that I could see I'm sure it would have made a great home.

One of the highlights of the day (do not judge me) was a hamburger with 'American characteristics' (yes I am quoting from the menu) found at 'Grandma's Kitchen'. We found this hidden gem while looking for another restaurant. Since then I've visited one more 'Grandma's Kitchen' sight across the street from my hotel for more 'American characteristics' and a can of Canada Dry ginger ale.