Day 20
East Coast – last day in Taiwan
We drove over to the east coast today to take grandma to visit some old friends and see the town where Wen Jen (Chandler’s father) grew up. It was really a really pretty drive, and I wish I took more pictures. We stopped shortly after we were near the ocean for a wonderful seafood lunch, and continued north along the coast for many miles to Wen Jen’s home town, which is a very small fishing village. There was little to do there, and we continued to the next town where the family has some friends. We took Chandler’s grandma to see her 106 year old friend. Unfortunately while we were there, Wen Jen’s friend locked the keys in the car, and we had to call a locksmith. The locksmith couldn’t get the door open, so they ended up breaking the window! Luckily it didn’t rain. Chandler and I tried to make the most of it by heading down to the beach, which looked really nice, but they wanted to charge you, so we decided against it. After we departed this town, we continued up the coast and turned inland for another stop to see a friend and to see another small town that was very pretty. We returned home early to have dinner with the family and catch up on everything and pack. Our flight leaves tomorrow at 4:40PM, and we have a long day of traveling ahead…
Having been here for the last 3 weeks, I must say that I really enjoyed Taiwan and and China. But if I had to choose 1 out of the 2 to visit again, I would go back to Taiwan before I would go back to China. It's not that I disliked China, it's just that I like Taiwan better. It's more... civilized, I guess. The culture shock wore off after a few days and I got used to things pretty quickly. It's a lot different, but I definitely like it.
Gahn-Bay
Notes: These items didn’t really fit anywhere, but are interesting.
The Chinese/Taiwanese love malls. They put them everywhere and in strange places like underground, in financial districts, etc. It’s their new favorite thing. Malls are vertically oriented. Eight stories is pretty standard.
People don’t really talk much. The subway is kind of quiet despite all the people.
The most I spent on a beer was 50 Yuan (about $7.50) for a 350mL (12 ounce) bottle. The least I spent was 3 Yuan (about 45 cents) for two 600mL (about 20.5 ounces) for a total of 1.2 liters (or 41 ounces). A beer in Taiwan pretty much always costs the equivalent of $1 to $2.
There are no open intoxicant laws in Taiwan or China. You can buy a beer anywhere and drink it in stores, on the street, wherever. There is little incentive to buy a beer at a bar when it’s very cheap in the stores and you can drink it anywhere.
I could always tell a Chinese person from a Taiwanese person based on how much they invaded my personal space. Believe me, it actually worked – Chandler can corroborate.
People stared at me in China a lot. I guess they really like light colored skin… A lot of people in China wanted to take a photo with me. My guess is that I got asked a total of about 20 times while there. The Taiwanese were unphased by my presence.
Chinese people touch you a lot (the whole invading your personal space thing). I hated it.
Everyone has a cell phone – everyone.
Chinese people drive more Buicks than Americans.
If you want to drive a nice car, you drive a Mercedes, especially in Taiwan. The German car brands are really popular as are the Japanese ones. American cars are prevalent. There are lots of Buicks in China, not so much in Taiwan. Ford has a larger presence in Taiwan, and I saw very few Chrysler products in either country. There are also some French cars (Puegeot, Citroen, and Renault), Italy’s Fiat is around, and a Czech car called a Skoda which is owned by VW. I saw 2 Bentleys in Beijing, and 1 in Taipei. I saw a Ferrari in Shanghai.
We borrowed a Communist policeman’s cell phone in Beijing… He was really nice.
Nobody in China speaks English, and if they do, they’re trying to sell you something, or they’re foreign. Most people in Taiwan speak English, as 12 years of it are mandatory in school.
Pedestrians don’t necessarily have the right of way.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Hua Xi, Ximending... Night Markets are Amazing
Day 17
Traveling
An uneventful day. We did lots of traveling. A flight from Beijing to Shanghai, then Shanghai back to Taipei. We did, however, ride a maglev in Shanghai to get to the airport. 30km in 8 minutes at 300km/h, which was very cool.
Day 18
Night markets and shopping.
Back in Taipei. Chandler had a dentist appointment and a dermatologist appointment today, so we got off to a slow start, but that was ok, as we got in kind of late from the airport and got to sleep in. We made a leisurely start towards the dentist and while I was waiting for Chandler to get finished, I walked around the neighborhood a bit. Not too much interesting, it was pretty standard for Taipei, and I never felt insecure. We departed to meet up with some of Chandler’s friends in Taipei. We took the MRT to somewhere further in the city and met them at a coffee shop playing where they were playing a board game. We hung out with them for a bit and took off to check out a nearby mall which was uninteresting (from my perspective – malls here are very high end).
After this we headed towards a new night market: Hua Xi. This one was cool, but we were there a bit early. This is the night market where you can see vendors kill snakes so that you can drink the blood – apparently it’s an aphrodisiac… We saw the snakes, but never saw one get killed. Apparently it’s kind of a novelty to see that anymore as it hardly ever happens. We grabbed a little something to eat, including chicken testicles, and pig intestines, and squid head, and they were all delicious. This night market had a bit of a different feel to it, which I didn’t really notice until Chandler pointed it out. Most of the time the night markets are filled young people. This one was a mix of young people and old people, and catered to a bit of a different crowd, but it was still interesting and worth a look.
From here we walked a short bit to a nearby shopping area called Ximending. This area was filled with young people, and was not really a night market, it was more like a shopping district, kind of like a big outdoor mall, but since it catered to young people, it was more affordable. It was kind of like Taipei’s version of the Nanjing in Shanghai, or Wanfujing in Beijing. We bummed around here for a while as it was quite large and hopped on the MRT to head towards Chandler’s dermatologist appointment. Luckily for me, his dermatologist’s office is right in the middle of Shi-Lin night market. Additionally weird was that his appointment was at 11:30PM. And if that isn’t weird enough, his mother moved his appointment forward by 2 hours from 1:30AM!!! Weird, right? Anyway, it worked for me, as Chandler just stopped at his dermatologist and I preceded to check out the night market. After he was done we grabbed a little something to eat, as neither of us was very hungry from the testicles, etc., and we raced to make the MRT back to Chandler’s home on the other side of town – we actually ran through a couple of the stations where we had transfers in order to make trains, but we did make it.
Gahn-Bay!
Day 19
National Palace Museum
We got up a bit early today and made our way to the National Palace Museum. Essentially the idea behind the National Palace Museum is this: The museum is full of stuff that was absconded from the Forbidden City in Beijing in 1948 during the Chinese Civil War. At the time the Capitalists were in power, and when they feared a Communist takeover of the government, they started boxing up all the nice shit and shipped it to Taiwan. So when the Communists eventually did take over, the Capitalists fled to Taiwan and the nicest items from imperial China went with them. So that’s the deal. Some of the stuff is still in the Forbidden City in Beijing, but most of the nice stuff made its way to Taiwan. So we spent about 5 hours there looking at all the collections, some of which were very impressive. The royal family definitely lived very lavishly, and the museum had many bronze items in the collection that were 10,000 years old.
After this we were a bit hungry, and we were supposed to meet up with a friend of Chandler’s. We headed to a shopping area with a giant mall, a huge ferris wheel, and a bunch of big-box stores surrounding it. We walked around there for a while and grabbed something eat. After a couple hours we decided to head back early and chill at home for the evening.
There is talk of driving to the east coast tomorrow, but I’m not really sure what will come to pass.
Gahn-Bay
Traveling
An uneventful day. We did lots of traveling. A flight from Beijing to Shanghai, then Shanghai back to Taipei. We did, however, ride a maglev in Shanghai to get to the airport. 30km in 8 minutes at 300km/h, which was very cool.
Day 18
Night markets and shopping.
Back in Taipei. Chandler had a dentist appointment and a dermatologist appointment today, so we got off to a slow start, but that was ok, as we got in kind of late from the airport and got to sleep in. We made a leisurely start towards the dentist and while I was waiting for Chandler to get finished, I walked around the neighborhood a bit. Not too much interesting, it was pretty standard for Taipei, and I never felt insecure. We departed to meet up with some of Chandler’s friends in Taipei. We took the MRT to somewhere further in the city and met them at a coffee shop playing where they were playing a board game. We hung out with them for a bit and took off to check out a nearby mall which was uninteresting (from my perspective – malls here are very high end).
After this we headed towards a new night market: Hua Xi. This one was cool, but we were there a bit early. This is the night market where you can see vendors kill snakes so that you can drink the blood – apparently it’s an aphrodisiac… We saw the snakes, but never saw one get killed. Apparently it’s kind of a novelty to see that anymore as it hardly ever happens. We grabbed a little something to eat, including chicken testicles, and pig intestines, and squid head, and they were all delicious. This night market had a bit of a different feel to it, which I didn’t really notice until Chandler pointed it out. Most of the time the night markets are filled young people. This one was a mix of young people and old people, and catered to a bit of a different crowd, but it was still interesting and worth a look.
From here we walked a short bit to a nearby shopping area called Ximending. This area was filled with young people, and was not really a night market, it was more like a shopping district, kind of like a big outdoor mall, but since it catered to young people, it was more affordable. It was kind of like Taipei’s version of the Nanjing in Shanghai, or Wanfujing in Beijing. We bummed around here for a while as it was quite large and hopped on the MRT to head towards Chandler’s dermatologist appointment. Luckily for me, his dermatologist’s office is right in the middle of Shi-Lin night market. Additionally weird was that his appointment was at 11:30PM. And if that isn’t weird enough, his mother moved his appointment forward by 2 hours from 1:30AM!!! Weird, right? Anyway, it worked for me, as Chandler just stopped at his dermatologist and I preceded to check out the night market. After he was done we grabbed a little something to eat, as neither of us was very hungry from the testicles, etc., and we raced to make the MRT back to Chandler’s home on the other side of town – we actually ran through a couple of the stations where we had transfers in order to make trains, but we did make it.
Gahn-Bay!
Day 19
National Palace Museum
We got up a bit early today and made our way to the National Palace Museum. Essentially the idea behind the National Palace Museum is this: The museum is full of stuff that was absconded from the Forbidden City in Beijing in 1948 during the Chinese Civil War. At the time the Capitalists were in power, and when they feared a Communist takeover of the government, they started boxing up all the nice shit and shipped it to Taiwan. So when the Communists eventually did take over, the Capitalists fled to Taiwan and the nicest items from imperial China went with them. So that’s the deal. Some of the stuff is still in the Forbidden City in Beijing, but most of the nice stuff made its way to Taiwan. So we spent about 5 hours there looking at all the collections, some of which were very impressive. The royal family definitely lived very lavishly, and the museum had many bronze items in the collection that were 10,000 years old.
After this we were a bit hungry, and we were supposed to meet up with a friend of Chandler’s. We headed to a shopping area with a giant mall, a huge ferris wheel, and a bunch of big-box stores surrounding it. We walked around there for a while and grabbed something eat. After a couple hours we decided to head back early and chill at home for the evening.
There is talk of driving to the east coast tomorrow, but I’m not really sure what will come to pass.
Gahn-Bay
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Panjiayuan market day
Day 16
Panjiayuan / Xuishui / Xidan
Ghost market!!! So apparently Panjiayuan used to be really cool. It’s a giant outdoor market where you can buy anything. You could probably spend all day there. Chandler’s Dad said that it used to be awesome, but that it’s still pretty cool. I guess back in the day there were real antiques mixed in with everything else, so you could get really good deals because no one knew their real value, but those days are no more. We still ended up spending about 5 hours there, and we ended up with a lot of stuff at good prices because it’s another market where you haggle for things. We were there so long that we took a lunch break and went back afterwards.
After we had spent too long at Panjiayuan, we wanted to go back to Xuishui to bargain on a couple more things. We hopped on the subway and bargained for a couple more hours until we had had our fill, at which point we debated either going back to the hotel to rest or to go to one last place before we headed back as it was about 5:30. We opted to check out Xidan, which was supposed to be similar to Wangfujing, but was not too much to be excited about. It was some standard department stores and an underground mall (they build a lot of stuff underground here – it’s a little bit weird). I just bought a couple shirts at a store called Uniqlo, which is kind of like H&M here, although they have that too.
We left Xidan and headed back towards the hotel and met up with Chandler’s parents for our last dinner in China. We headed not too far down the street for some place that was famous for its noodle dishes, and everything was really good. It was an interesting place because there’s lots of yelling. When you walk in the door, someone holds the door open and yells to the restaurant how many people are entering the restaurant, and the same for when people leave. Sometimes the wait staff responds with their own yells. It was interesting to say the least.
After dinner we headed back to pack and whatnot. We leave around 10AM tomorrow for a flight to Shanghai, then Taiwan.
Gahn-Bay.
Panjiayuan / Xuishui / Xidan
Ghost market!!! So apparently Panjiayuan used to be really cool. It’s a giant outdoor market where you can buy anything. You could probably spend all day there. Chandler’s Dad said that it used to be awesome, but that it’s still pretty cool. I guess back in the day there were real antiques mixed in with everything else, so you could get really good deals because no one knew their real value, but those days are no more. We still ended up spending about 5 hours there, and we ended up with a lot of stuff at good prices because it’s another market where you haggle for things. We were there so long that we took a lunch break and went back afterwards.
After we had spent too long at Panjiayuan, we wanted to go back to Xuishui to bargain on a couple more things. We hopped on the subway and bargained for a couple more hours until we had had our fill, at which point we debated either going back to the hotel to rest or to go to one last place before we headed back as it was about 5:30. We opted to check out Xidan, which was supposed to be similar to Wangfujing, but was not too much to be excited about. It was some standard department stores and an underground mall (they build a lot of stuff underground here – it’s a little bit weird). I just bought a couple shirts at a store called Uniqlo, which is kind of like H&M here, although they have that too.
We left Xidan and headed back towards the hotel and met up with Chandler’s parents for our last dinner in China. We headed not too far down the street for some place that was famous for its noodle dishes, and everything was really good. It was an interesting place because there’s lots of yelling. When you walk in the door, someone holds the door open and yells to the restaurant how many people are entering the restaurant, and the same for when people leave. Sometimes the wait staff responds with their own yells. It was interesting to say the least.
After dinner we headed back to pack and whatnot. We leave around 10AM tomorrow for a flight to Shanghai, then Taiwan.
Gahn-Bay.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Xuishui shopping
Day 15
Xuishui / Luilichang
We shopped a lot today. We got up and had breakfast at the hotel, then headed towards another exhibition for that auction. We walked around for a bit because Chandler’s parents wanted to see something there that they might bid on. After a little while there, Chandler’s parents departed and we were left on our own to find the Xuishui market. After a little walking we found the building where it is housed and had some fun. Bartering is the name of the game, and you can get some good deals, but you can also get taken. It’s not unusual to end up with something at 10% of the original asking price. It was a big place, and we were wheeling and dealing for about 3 hours, and we both ended up with what we wanted at good prices. From here we departed for another market called Qianmen, which took us a little while to find. It was kind of like a night market, but we were there during the day, and it was fairly deserted. We walked through some of Qianmen towards Luilichang, which is a market area where they sell antiques and stuff (most of them fake). By the time we got here we only walked around for about half an hour before we got a call to head towards a restaurant for dinner, but we probably weren’t going to buy anything here anyways as it was expensive.
We met Chandler’s parents at a restaurant a bit to the south for some very good Xuan Yong, or Shabu-Shabu Lamb (I don’t get it either)… On the table were 2 hot pots with a gas flame underneath that boiled water with vegetables and herbs in it. You receive plates of raw meat, fish, etc., and cook it by boiling it in the water. It was good, but it wasn’t my favorite thing that I’d eaten on the trip, although it is apparently Chandler’s favorite.
After dinner we headed to the auction to see if Chandler’s father could get a piece that he wanted, but he was unsuccessful, and we just headed back to the hotel for some rest. Apparently we’re getting up at 7AM in the morning for the Ghost Market, so I’m going to hit the hay despite it being only 10:30PM.
Gahn-Bay = Cheers.
Xuishui / Luilichang
We shopped a lot today. We got up and had breakfast at the hotel, then headed towards another exhibition for that auction. We walked around for a bit because Chandler’s parents wanted to see something there that they might bid on. After a little while there, Chandler’s parents departed and we were left on our own to find the Xuishui market. After a little walking we found the building where it is housed and had some fun. Bartering is the name of the game, and you can get some good deals, but you can also get taken. It’s not unusual to end up with something at 10% of the original asking price. It was a big place, and we were wheeling and dealing for about 3 hours, and we both ended up with what we wanted at good prices. From here we departed for another market called Qianmen, which took us a little while to find. It was kind of like a night market, but we were there during the day, and it was fairly deserted. We walked through some of Qianmen towards Luilichang, which is a market area where they sell antiques and stuff (most of them fake). By the time we got here we only walked around for about half an hour before we got a call to head towards a restaurant for dinner, but we probably weren’t going to buy anything here anyways as it was expensive.
We met Chandler’s parents at a restaurant a bit to the south for some very good Xuan Yong, or Shabu-Shabu Lamb (I don’t get it either)… On the table were 2 hot pots with a gas flame underneath that boiled water with vegetables and herbs in it. You receive plates of raw meat, fish, etc., and cook it by boiling it in the water. It was good, but it wasn’t my favorite thing that I’d eaten on the trip, although it is apparently Chandler’s favorite.
After dinner we headed to the auction to see if Chandler’s father could get a piece that he wanted, but he was unsuccessful, and we just headed back to the hotel for some rest. Apparently we’re getting up at 7AM in the morning for the Ghost Market, so I’m going to hit the hay despite it being only 10:30PM.
Gahn-Bay = Cheers.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Tiananmen - Royal Family Excesses
Day 13
Tiananmen / Beihai
We walked a lot this day, but we walk quite a bit everyday. We started the day at Tiananmen Square, which is huge. Apparently it’s the largest public square in the world??? I don’t know how to quantify the size, but it’s very large. We started at the Southern end of the square, called the Arrow Tower, to the north of that is the Mao Zedong Mausoleum (ya, creepy), and the Monument of the People’s Heroes, then various gates and whatnot (including the one with Mao’s pictures) until you reach the Forbidden City. It was all very impressive, especially considering how old it all was. After we made our way towards the Forbidden City, we walked along one of the hutongs on the west side of the Forbidden City towards Beihai Park. Beihai Park is a giant imperial park just to the northwest of the Forbidden City. It’s huge, and its use was solely for the royal family, but it is currently open to the public (for a fee). We ended up walking around the entire lake, which is pretty much the whole park, so we saw a lot of the temples and stuff in the park and it was very pretty, but it was a really long way.
After about 3 hours in Beihai we took a bus to the Temple of Heaven, but we got a call from Chandler’s mother when we got there and didn’t have enough time to go in. We ended up just walking around a bit in that neighborhood and Chandler ended up having an interesting conversation with a local man. We got another call indicating we were running late by this time, and we hopped on the subway to go to Chandler’s parents’ friend’s house, which would be our meeting place before heading to dinner.
Apparently we were really late because we were met on the sidewalk and right afterwards we jumped in cars to head towards a restaurant for some great food. They ordered too much (as usual) and I got to eat more Peking Duck. The dinner conversation was also fascinating as Chandler was translating some of it for me. All the people at the table were probably 40-50 and grew up very poor, and when they tell their children about not having enough food when they were young, their children don’t believe it.
We retired back to the hotel early and got some sleep because it was quite an exhausting day.
Day 14
Summer Palace
Today, Chandler, his parents, and I started at Summer Palace, which is about 20 km northwest of Beijing. This was like Beihai on steroids. It was a giant garden palace that an empress built for summer retreats in 1750. This was also solely for the use of the royal family. The centerpiece is a manmade lake about that is about a mile square (2.2 km^2) and the excavated dirt was used to build Longevity Hill at about 200 feet above the level of the lake (60 m). Think about those numbers for a minute, and remember that it is all man made… in 1750… ya… Apparently this empress funneled money that was meant to fund the Chinese Navy into the construction of this park, which turned out to be a bad idea later due to a lack of defenses. Lots more walking… There was also an impressive temple at the top of the Longevity Hill with a ‘thousand hand Buddha,’ which really only has like 30 arms. The park was beautiful, but daunting in size.
We stopped at a restaurant nearby for a little lunch and headed towards the Beijing Botanical Gardens, which were very pretty, but again, huge. There was another pretty cool temple in the BBG called ‘Wofo Temple’ with a sleeping Buddha. It was all very pretty, and we only saw a fraction of the Beijing Botanical Garden before departing.
From here we made our way to the Olympic Park area to snap some photos of the Bird’s Nest and other buildings. By this time we were all pretty exhausted, and we rode the subway back towards the hotel for some relaxation before going out to a casual dinner near the hotel.
That is all for now. Cheers.
Tiananmen / Beihai
We walked a lot this day, but we walk quite a bit everyday. We started the day at Tiananmen Square, which is huge. Apparently it’s the largest public square in the world??? I don’t know how to quantify the size, but it’s very large. We started at the Southern end of the square, called the Arrow Tower, to the north of that is the Mao Zedong Mausoleum (ya, creepy), and the Monument of the People’s Heroes, then various gates and whatnot (including the one with Mao’s pictures) until you reach the Forbidden City. It was all very impressive, especially considering how old it all was. After we made our way towards the Forbidden City, we walked along one of the hutongs on the west side of the Forbidden City towards Beihai Park. Beihai Park is a giant imperial park just to the northwest of the Forbidden City. It’s huge, and its use was solely for the royal family, but it is currently open to the public (for a fee). We ended up walking around the entire lake, which is pretty much the whole park, so we saw a lot of the temples and stuff in the park and it was very pretty, but it was a really long way.
After about 3 hours in Beihai we took a bus to the Temple of Heaven, but we got a call from Chandler’s mother when we got there and didn’t have enough time to go in. We ended up just walking around a bit in that neighborhood and Chandler ended up having an interesting conversation with a local man. We got another call indicating we were running late by this time, and we hopped on the subway to go to Chandler’s parents’ friend’s house, which would be our meeting place before heading to dinner.
Apparently we were really late because we were met on the sidewalk and right afterwards we jumped in cars to head towards a restaurant for some great food. They ordered too much (as usual) and I got to eat more Peking Duck. The dinner conversation was also fascinating as Chandler was translating some of it for me. All the people at the table were probably 40-50 and grew up very poor, and when they tell their children about not having enough food when they were young, their children don’t believe it.
We retired back to the hotel early and got some sleep because it was quite an exhausting day.
Day 14
Summer Palace
Today, Chandler, his parents, and I started at Summer Palace, which is about 20 km northwest of Beijing. This was like Beihai on steroids. It was a giant garden palace that an empress built for summer retreats in 1750. This was also solely for the use of the royal family. The centerpiece is a manmade lake about that is about a mile square (2.2 km^2) and the excavated dirt was used to build Longevity Hill at about 200 feet above the level of the lake (60 m). Think about those numbers for a minute, and remember that it is all man made… in 1750… ya… Apparently this empress funneled money that was meant to fund the Chinese Navy into the construction of this park, which turned out to be a bad idea later due to a lack of defenses. Lots more walking… There was also an impressive temple at the top of the Longevity Hill with a ‘thousand hand Buddha,’ which really only has like 30 arms. The park was beautiful, but daunting in size.
We stopped at a restaurant nearby for a little lunch and headed towards the Beijing Botanical Gardens, which were very pretty, but again, huge. There was another pretty cool temple in the BBG called ‘Wofo Temple’ with a sleeping Buddha. It was all very pretty, and we only saw a fraction of the Beijing Botanical Garden before departing.
From here we made our way to the Olympic Park area to snap some photos of the Bird’s Nest and other buildings. By this time we were all pretty exhausted, and we rode the subway back towards the hotel for some relaxation before going out to a casual dinner near the hotel.
That is all for now. Cheers.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Beijing
Day 11
Forbidden City
Chandler’s Dad woke us up around 8:30 and we went downstairs to the restaurant to grab some breakfast. The plan was that we would go to some auction exhibition and look at all the stuff you could bid on. Apparently Chandler’s parents were interested in bidding on a couple items. This auction was huge. It was in multiple buildings, and it was like being in a museum, except everything was for sale. This was the exhibition part where you could actually like touch 1000 year old vases and ink stones used by emperors and whatnot. Needless to say, I couldn’t afford anything… We ran into some of Chandler’s parents’ friends at the exhibition and went out to lunch with them. Since I am writing this three days after the fact, every meal I’ve eaten with these people has been amazing, but huge. They order way too much food and for some reason expect me to eat a lot. Perhaps it’s because I’m American.
After lunch, Chandler and I branched off and headed towards the Forbidden City for some sightseeing. We were there from about 2 until closing at 5, and I don’t think we even scratched the surface – the place is huge, more than 7000 rooms. What we did see was pretty cool. All the buildings in the center of the city are for the emperor’s use and are palatial. Pretty much these guys had giant palaces with chairs in them. There must have been about 5 giant buildings with a throne used for different purposes and nothing else. It was very lavish, especially for something 500 years old. We were pushed out of the Forbidden City as it was getting close to closing time, and we went to the top of Jingshan Hill just north of the Forbidden City for an extraordinary view of the Forbidden City and much of Beijing. Jingshan Park was an imperial garden that the emperor used and even one emperor committed suicide there. It did provide an amazing view.
After this we made our way back to the hotel to meet Chandler’s parents so we could go out for dinner. We went to a place not too far away from the hotel and I got my first taste of Peking Duck. It was really good. All the Chinese people really like the skin, and it’s supposed to be the best part, and they always want me to try everything, and often let me try to best parts, which is great, but can be a bit too much food after a while.
Afterwards we headed back to the hotel because we were underslept and wanted to get some sleep.
Day 12
Hauirou / Houhai area
This day was amazing. We started fairly leisurely with a light breakfast and met up with some of Chandler’s parents’ friends around 11AM. We then proceeded to drive (in personal cars) about an hour and a half northeast of Beijing towards Hauirou. The trip alone was beautiful. After about 30 minutes we were driven out of Beijing and after another 30 minutes we were no longer on an expressway. We made our way to a tiny restaurant with fish ponds where we caught our lunch. It was some kind of trout, and it was prepared both raw and cooked, each were really good. After we had finished lunch, we took about a 30 minute hike up to an abandoned part of the Great Wall. It was awesome. There was absolutely no one there, and this part of the wall was completely unlike what you see pictures of. It was totally falling apart and hadn’t been fixed in probably hundreds of years. We climbed all over it. Despite the signage discouraging any climbing, even the Chinese people I was with were into it and wanted to climb around to look for bricks with dates on them (apparently they’re valuable). After some time here, we hiked back down to the restaurant where we had lunch and took a break for some tea before heading back towards Beijing.
When we got into town, we were dropped up in a bar district on a lake called Houhai that was supposed to be cool for young people and foreigners. Chandler and I walked around there a little bit and were not extremely excited about it. We did, however, find a really cool fruit/vegetable market nearby where we picked some odd fruits native to China that were quite good. There was also a grocery store here where we found 600mL Yanjing beer for 3 yuan (about 40 cents!). While we were walking around here it started raining though, and we decided to split for a different scene.
We went to Wanfujing, which was supposed to be a night market area. There were some stores and stuff and it was a designated shopping district with a nice mall as well. We walked around a bit for a little something to eat as neither of us was very hungry. We were kind of underwhelmed by the night market in Wanfujing and asked around for suggestions on late night activities. We were recommended a couple and ended up going to Huixiantang, which was very close to Houhai, and on the same lake (which is quite large). We walked around here for quite a while as it was quite a large area with many bars to choose from. We were kind of turned off by a large section of the area because everyone was soliciting your business by trying to get you to come in. We didn’t like that and returned to an area where the atmosphere was more nonchalant, but unfortunately this was the trendy and expensive area. We could only afford one beer here, and left around 12:30AM to get some sleep.
I’m still one day behind, but I need some sleep…
Cheers.
Forbidden City
Chandler’s Dad woke us up around 8:30 and we went downstairs to the restaurant to grab some breakfast. The plan was that we would go to some auction exhibition and look at all the stuff you could bid on. Apparently Chandler’s parents were interested in bidding on a couple items. This auction was huge. It was in multiple buildings, and it was like being in a museum, except everything was for sale. This was the exhibition part where you could actually like touch 1000 year old vases and ink stones used by emperors and whatnot. Needless to say, I couldn’t afford anything… We ran into some of Chandler’s parents’ friends at the exhibition and went out to lunch with them. Since I am writing this three days after the fact, every meal I’ve eaten with these people has been amazing, but huge. They order way too much food and for some reason expect me to eat a lot. Perhaps it’s because I’m American.
After lunch, Chandler and I branched off and headed towards the Forbidden City for some sightseeing. We were there from about 2 until closing at 5, and I don’t think we even scratched the surface – the place is huge, more than 7000 rooms. What we did see was pretty cool. All the buildings in the center of the city are for the emperor’s use and are palatial. Pretty much these guys had giant palaces with chairs in them. There must have been about 5 giant buildings with a throne used for different purposes and nothing else. It was very lavish, especially for something 500 years old. We were pushed out of the Forbidden City as it was getting close to closing time, and we went to the top of Jingshan Hill just north of the Forbidden City for an extraordinary view of the Forbidden City and much of Beijing. Jingshan Park was an imperial garden that the emperor used and even one emperor committed suicide there. It did provide an amazing view.
After this we made our way back to the hotel to meet Chandler’s parents so we could go out for dinner. We went to a place not too far away from the hotel and I got my first taste of Peking Duck. It was really good. All the Chinese people really like the skin, and it’s supposed to be the best part, and they always want me to try everything, and often let me try to best parts, which is great, but can be a bit too much food after a while.
Afterwards we headed back to the hotel because we were underslept and wanted to get some sleep.
Day 12
Hauirou / Houhai area
This day was amazing. We started fairly leisurely with a light breakfast and met up with some of Chandler’s parents’ friends around 11AM. We then proceeded to drive (in personal cars) about an hour and a half northeast of Beijing towards Hauirou. The trip alone was beautiful. After about 30 minutes we were driven out of Beijing and after another 30 minutes we were no longer on an expressway. We made our way to a tiny restaurant with fish ponds where we caught our lunch. It was some kind of trout, and it was prepared both raw and cooked, each were really good. After we had finished lunch, we took about a 30 minute hike up to an abandoned part of the Great Wall. It was awesome. There was absolutely no one there, and this part of the wall was completely unlike what you see pictures of. It was totally falling apart and hadn’t been fixed in probably hundreds of years. We climbed all over it. Despite the signage discouraging any climbing, even the Chinese people I was with were into it and wanted to climb around to look for bricks with dates on them (apparently they’re valuable). After some time here, we hiked back down to the restaurant where we had lunch and took a break for some tea before heading back towards Beijing.
When we got into town, we were dropped up in a bar district on a lake called Houhai that was supposed to be cool for young people and foreigners. Chandler and I walked around there a little bit and were not extremely excited about it. We did, however, find a really cool fruit/vegetable market nearby where we picked some odd fruits native to China that were quite good. There was also a grocery store here where we found 600mL Yanjing beer for 3 yuan (about 40 cents!). While we were walking around here it started raining though, and we decided to split for a different scene.
We went to Wanfujing, which was supposed to be a night market area. There were some stores and stuff and it was a designated shopping district with a nice mall as well. We walked around a bit for a little something to eat as neither of us was very hungry. We were kind of underwhelmed by the night market in Wanfujing and asked around for suggestions on late night activities. We were recommended a couple and ended up going to Huixiantang, which was very close to Houhai, and on the same lake (which is quite large). We walked around here for quite a while as it was quite a large area with many bars to choose from. We were kind of turned off by a large section of the area because everyone was soliciting your business by trying to get you to come in. We didn’t like that and returned to an area where the atmosphere was more nonchalant, but unfortunately this was the trendy and expensive area. We could only afford one beer here, and left around 12:30AM to get some sleep.
I’m still one day behind, but I need some sleep…
Cheers.
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