We arrived in Beijing and took a long cab ride across town to meet our host Dani (Dodi). We were struck by the powerful architecture in Beijing. The buildings are large and creatively built with a variety of materials and styles. We had some difficulty finding the subway exit that we needed to meet up with Dani and once we did, ended up striking up a conversation with a helpful Texan named Fernando. Dani arrived, we exchanged some hugs and begun the five block walk to his apartment. The building wasn’t lit and felt a bit rundown in the hallways but once we entered the room on the 9th floor it was a clean, simple apartment. Again I’m struck by the superior quality of building materials and craftsmanship in the apartments here compared to Seoul.

 

We got on really quickly and had a good conversation about Asian cultures and even though he was visibly tired from having to wake up at 4am to work his job for a broadcasting company; he stayed up with us for awhile. Not long after he went to sleep, Jeff and Batina, his roommates arrived. Jeff immediately started bringing out maps and sat us down to begin planning our stint in Beijing. He was obviously passionate about couchsurfing and very eager to share his experience with us. It left a good impression and we went to sleep on the fold out couch with a plan for the next couple days.

 

3-4-09

 

We woke early to leave their flat before they left for work. Our first order of business was to visit the PSB building responsible for immigration and visa issues. The pollution was extreme and we almost gagged when it was coupled with a sulfuric yellow liquid that was being sprayed on the bushes. Again, I was struck by how toxic the city is and felt a moment of pity for the lungs of a young child that walked by. We found the modern PSB building and a somewhat chaotic mess of people waiting in lines and filling out forms. We queued up for a long wait and were really surprised when the woman who was helping foreigners with their visa problems was unable to communicate in English effectively, so we ended up relying on the Indian girl behind us to explain that China would need us to transfer $100 into a Chinese bank account for every day we wanted to extend. This didn’t make us feel welcome, especially considering that as Americans we paid four times the amount of any other nationality to get our 30 day visa in the first place. We left the building feeling confused and frustrated.  

 

While making our way through the fog to Lama Temple we discussed how this was going to affect our plans. After finding the entrance to the temple and walking down a long garden to the entrance to the complex, Rachel had a panicked restroom moment. Our bodies are still adjusting to the food, but it’s not as bad as our transition upon arriving in Korea 5 years ago. We enjoyed Lama temple, it wasn’t as bastardized as some of the other temples we visited. The occupants seemed to be genuine monks and there weren’t souvenir shops in every corner. The huge wooden Buddha carved out of one piece of sandlewood was awe-inspiring. The tree must have been an epic one because the crown of its carved head stretched up through the beams of a huge temple.

 

We had some time left and decided that we could do the Summer Palace, maybe saving us a day in Beijing because we were concerned about our shaky visa situation. The subway that we intended to ride hadn’t finished being constructed so we relied on the Lonely Planet to steer us toward a bus number. It took us twenty minutes to find the bus, and another 40 to find a way to get on it because it just kept driving past us and would disappear in the pollution before we could see it make a stop to pick up passengers. We finally got on it after a lot of conflicting signals from the locals that we asked for directions. With all that time lost, we decided to see the “Old” summer palace rather than the popular one. It was a huge area with massive man-made ponds, hills, and the ruins of European style mansions that had been destroyed by Europeans in a war a few hundred years ago. At one point, we sat at an empty outdoor cafeteria, had a couple cans of beer and sat in the cold wind, and for some reason, felt warm for the first time all day. It had already been a long one. We got lost in a man-made concrete maze later on and almost got lost in the park itself, the wind picking up, and the cats that lived there were even huddled tight to stay warm. We were tired, but wanted to see the Olympic area. It took awhile to get there because we went during rush hour. We trudged through the “fog” and made our way to the bird nest and watercube that Phelps made Olympic history in. We couldn’t find a way into the stadiums so we made another long walk to a subway station, it was getting dark. We were very tired but went across town to eat Peking Duck at a restaurant that’s a couple hundred years old and a tourist hotspot. We got overcharged for the duck but were so slap-happy at that point that we didn’t really care. Duck skin tastes a little like bacon. We left full and a little sick feeling because of the high fat content. We made our way through the subway to our couchsufing spot and just crashed.

 

3-5-09

 

Rachel heard it raining late at night. We wake up in the morning to a beautifully clear, cleaned, and sunny Beijing. The high winds in the night swept up the poisonous air so it could be distributed evenly with the rest of the world. But I’m smiling and grateful for unobstructed view of an otherwise lovely city. We make our way to the Forbidden City, bumping our way through the masses of people collecting in front of it. Guards and police or posted everywhere, wearing green jackets and serious faces. Mao looks out above us all. We make our way into the Forbidden City and I’m not going to go into detail about everything we saw and did there. I’ll just say that I haven’t seen a human creation that can match it in scope, size, and the amount of human effort required to create it and the artifacts that it holds. It made me wonder how grand it would have been before the fires, attacks, looting, and time passed if it could be so impressive after all this time. If you visit Beijing, it’s a must see, and a great value compared to the other sites we’ve paid to enter. The amount of gold and quality of the art is mind-numbing. We spent 5 hours walking to every corner of the place and my legs hurt afterwards.

 

We made our way across the street and thorough the security check to get into Tiananmen Square. The woman who frisked me did it with sense of authority and gentleness that I’ll never forget and she will always have a piece of my heart.

 

We didn’t have the energy to walk all over the square but took a few pictures of the landmarks with Emily’s Christmas egg and went back to our area via subway. We went to “Spicy Boys and Girls” to get some cheap and decent food with tall beers. Rachel helped me eat the saucy pork, fried rice, and cucumber rolls. After that we came back home to hang out for a couple hours before leaving with Dani to eat with Jeff, Bettina, and a couple other surfers at a nice middle-eastern restaurant. We enjoyed the huge spread and realized that in the future, we need to ask more questions about cost before blindly accepting invitations to restaurants that we can’t really afford on our budget. After that we went to a packed bar, full of expats, who were enjoying the “Cinco de Driko” (or something like that), the monthly night where all the drinks are half price. We had some short conversations; some girls embarrassed Rachel by criticizing her clothing in not so hushed voices. It’s hard to look your best when moving the way we are, and a bit insensitive coming from couchsurfing hosts, but girls will be girls I guess, and a beautiful girl can bring out the worst in them. Jeff and Batina left about an hour after we’d arrived and we rode home in a cab together and talked about the Chinese attitude toward drugs.

 

3-6-09

 

We expected to wake up feeling super sore and tired but both our bodies had rebounded a little during the night. We got ready and left the apartment with Jeff to meet some other couchsurfers in front of McDonalds so we could catch our hired cars to the Jinshaling-Simatai Great Wall Hike. In our van there was a Filipino named Ronnie, and two Polish girls, Marta and Magda. We talked for most of the two and a half hour ride, sharing stories about traveling, our homes, and couchsurfing experiences (we’ve been doing a lot of that lately). We were really fortunate to have a clear day that wasn’t too cold. We made it to the wall beginning and it wasn’t busy at all. A few hawkers joined our group for the first kilometer, trying to use their persistence and patience to sell souvenirs and books. When we made it up the first hill, the rolling mountains and wall stretched out across the horizon and we all went picture crazy for about 10 minutes. Our other companions were a guy from Argentina named Matias, there was Alexa, a girl from Columbia who is living in Germany. A couple from Holland, the guys name we didn’t catch although we had some good conversations, I remember it as something close to Enor. His girlfriend, Diana, was from Columbia as well, she had a lot of spunk.

 

We all got along really well and had fun taking pictures of each other, enjoying the beautiful scenery and the privacy that this hike was giving us. There were only a handful of other travelers on the wall. We went through around 30 of the towers, some crumbling some in great shape. It was an incredible experience. At one point, about half way through, I was passing a couple that was sitting down eating; I hadn’t seen them up to that point in the hike. Right as I walked by, he took a knee and asked her to marry him. I was really surprised and blurted an audible “Seriously” … Then I immediately started taking pictures as fast as I knew how to … thinking that I could email them and they could enjoy that moment forever. She said, “Yes.” He was Dutch and she was Polish. Once Rachel and I had caught up to the rest of the group, we gave them the news and when the couple caught up … we all gave them congratulations. It was a nice moment. Everybody was happy.

 

Near the end of our hike, we crossed a shaky swinging bridge above beautiful blue water coming from a natural hot spring. On the other side, a German couple who we had seen at the Forbidden City the day before, and I had to unfortunately refuse an offer to drink with later that night because our budget wouldn’t allow it, strapped themselves into a harness and shot out across the water on a steel wire to the other side, and out of our lives. Goodbye guys.

 

On the ride home, everybody except me fell asleep. I hadn’t listened to my music in a week and was eager to see if it still sounded good to me. The drive didn’t seem long and once together again in front of McDonalds; we all decided we were hungry. Rachel and I knew the area a little bit and took them to the restaurant we’d been to the day before. The staff showed us a round table upstairs with a nice view; we struggled to order food and beers and then shared a lot of stories and laughs. There was a particularly funny one about a family in a “rat temple” in India who were drinking warm milk out of the same bowl the rats were.

 

After that, we went back to Jeff/Dani’s place but nobody was home. Rachel and I walked around, priced a hostel that was across the street, and used a phone in a convenience store to call our hosts. We went back to their hallway and waited on the stairs watching the press secretary on my ipod talk about Obama’s vision.

 

Jeff had printed out a couple itineraries that we could take in southern China. As always, we were grateful for the information and I promised to look it all over as soon as I had some extra energy.

 

On a side note ….. Car rides, train trips, walks, all that stuff just doesn’t feel like a chore anymore. It’s almost a welcome rest. We need to keep moving, and sometimes it’s difficult to pull myself off of a flat surface when Rachel is hungry or we’ve got to buy train tickets before relaxing but … I don’t dread the traveling part of traveling as much as I expected to. I enjoy the view, try to make room for my knees, catch up on current events, my journals, or try to make progress with my character in the DS game Chrono Trigger.

 

3-7-09

 

I woke early and walked a few blocks across the inner ring of Beijing to get coffee for everyone. McDonalds coffee is becoming a part of breakfast now. On the walk home I passed a small, unmarked shop that Jeff told me made cheap food. It was a small place with an older man, expertly making a good breakfast crepe-like thing. He would pour a ladle of batter onto a circular, side-less, iron pan, which is heated by coals underneath. Using an instrument resembling a small wooden window wiper, he’d spin the batter outwards into a thin pancake. Then he’d crack an egg and use the same instrument to push it’s contents out around the circle of batter. Using two flat spatulas, he’d work around the sides, loosening the batter from the skillet, to flip the egg covered side downward. Then he’s use a brush to spread a sauce that had the color and consistency of melted chocolate liberally on the other side, followed by a lighter brushing of pepper paste, some seeds, green onions, and then a large deep fried wafer. He’d divide the wafer with his spatula and then flip up all the sides of the pancake until all the contents were locked inside and the egg revealed again. The entire process takes over two minutes, so since I had five to make, and four people in front of me, I made the mistake of letting a younger guy in front of me, and then the woman who was talking to the older man from outside, apparently she had ordered four, unbeknownst to me, so after about a half an hour, I was next in line. He made one for me, then a sweet older woman came in. I asked her how many she was planning on buying, she finger signaled two (nobody speaks ANY English), so I gave her the one he’d already made for me … and the next. After returning home hands full of coffees and pastry’s I had some apologizing to do when Rachel said that she was getting ready to come looking for me.

 

Jeff and Bettina were grateful for the food that they said they were planning on getting dressed to go get anyways. We all ate and I did some research/journal stuff. We left the apartment around 12 and had a nice goodbye/thank you thank you thank you at the subway station. Rachel and I got lost in an upscale part of the city because our apartment was in a building called Fortune Plaza and there were two buildings with that name in Beijing. We Google Mapped the wrong one. Rachel was pretty grumpy because her bag is too heavy for her to comfortably lug around for more than an hour. After a lot of confusion, and some excellent assistance from the management at the apartment high-rise we’d mistakenly gone to, we got directions written in Chinese and took a long taxi ride out of town and were met by a guy who walked us to the correct place.

 

We really like this hotel. It’s done in a modern/industrial style (think Chipotle), there is plenty of room and it’s comfortable. We wanted badly to just sit and rest but we needed to get train tickets for Chengde. The guy at the desk made us a card of information so we could find a ticket sales office down the street. Rachel and I found a supermarket,  stocked up on beer, chips, water, and sugar. Found the tickets and used hand gestures to get our tickets without too much trouble, and then settled on KFC for lunch/dinner. It was a nice evening of doing nothing. Even God had to rest.

 

3-8-09

 

We got a late start from our hotel to the Summer Palace over on the other side of Beijing. The bus ride was really tedious … stop, start, stop, start, we’re already behind schedule, traffic is bad, by the end of it we were feeling a bit testy. We also realized that we need to make sure to eat because hunger just compounds frustration. So after the hour and a half of the inner city bus ride, we arrive, and eat some food.

The Summer Palace is a zoo of tour groups and everyone else. The ticket sales lady yells at Rachel and the man next to her joins in. They won’t sell us the “through” ticket so we just have entrance to the park but have to pay extra for each individual temple. We cough up money for a “theater temple” but it’s a disappointment. We make our way over to a human-made lake that is massive, and get a couple nice shots there because it’s a nice day. After that we want to see the temple on a hill, that costs extra, we climb the stairs and that starts turning me into a “Crabby McGrumblstein.” We’re both suffering from “temple burnout.” You really have to have a fine tuned sense of appreciation to see the subtleties in the temples or else they all start looking similar. We are really running on fumes at this point and are making our way to the highest point when we hit another ticket booth. Screw this. We turn around, get a much needed beer and I start getting bitchy.

 

After we see the empresses “marble boat” which is really just a building that looks like a boat and connected to the shore, we decide to leave because we have lost patience with the consistent “nickel and dime” process that all the sites in China employ.

 

We jump on the first bus that we can, the ticket lady is frustrated with us because she can’t explain that the bus we’re on isn’t going to go where it says it will.  An older Chinese gentleman explains the situation and with the assistance of my GPS we find a subway station that takes us home. We get off in front of the white smoke belching power plant that we could see from our room window and go through a street market on the way home. All the hustle and bustle gives us a second wind, we buy some fatty, spicy pork kebabs from the Muslims and go across the street to stock up at the supermarket from the previous day. Once at home, we wind down, talk to Rachel’s mom, and enjoy gummy candy.