On the Road with Brent & Erika

After a very pleasant night train in which we enjoyed an actual bed (what a difference that made!), we arrived to our Beijing hostel with ease thanks to the help of our two English friends, Louise and Natalie. They had been to Beijing previously so they knew the correct bus number and how to wind through the streets to our hostel without getting lost--on our own that might have taken a long time of pointing to Chinese characters in our guide book. Our hostel is in a traditional old neighborhood (called a "hutong") in which the streets are narrow and crowded with people, short-legged dogs and shops. Beijing is undergoing a whirlwind of preparations for the 2008 Olympics so there is much construction and renovation in progress; however, our little home in the hutong seemed untouched by all of this.


Me on the sleeper train faithfully keeping up my role as journaler of the trip


Scene from the hutong


The official countdown to the Olympics

The first day we arrived, we visited the colorful Lama Temple, which is the most famous Tibetan Buddhist temple outside of Tibet. It is most renowned for having a 55 ft. Buddha carved from one trunk of a sandalwood tree. It's in the Guiness Book of World Records and really was gigantic (we weren't allowed to photograph it)!


These monks wear red instead of orange.


Lama Temple


Pensive woman in Beijing

The next day was our long-awaited Great Wall day. We arranged transportation to take us three hours outside of Beijing to one point on the wall and then pick us up at another point, allowing us to hike 10 km on the actual wall. The morning of our hike we woke up to tons of rain, and I was so disappointed because I was afraid this experience that I had been looking forward to might be ruined. As we rode in the bus, it continued to thunder loudly and pour, and I was preparing myself to have to come back and visit the wall again just to get a proper experience. Much to my relief, the rain stopped and the weather cooperated the entire day, leaving us cool temperatures to hike in and a foggy mist that rolled in and out. I think the weather kept some of the tourists away as well because our group pretty much had the wall to ourselves, which in crowded China is quite astounding!

Scenes from the Great Wall:





The section of the wall we hiked was often steep (at times a 70-degree incline) with 30 watchtowers along the way that we climbed through in order to continue along the wall. It was very cool to walk along the sometimes stony rubble from over 2000 years ago, although we had to watch ourselves not to fall (Brent took a spill, but he wasn't hurt). Hiking the Great Wall met and exceeded our expectations and is definitely a highlight of our trip!





Today we had a full day of sightseeing in Beijing beginning with Tiananmen Square (the world's largest public square). We began our experience by viewing the preserved body of Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Communist Party. We joined the long line of devoted Chinese to file past his body in the mausoleum. It's interesting because some Chinese wish that Mao's body be buried in his hometown in order to remove the ghoulish display before the 2008 Olympics and Mao himself wanted to be cremated. But for now, he remains carefully pickled in his massive mausoleum in the square.


Huge portrait of Mao Zedong at the entrance to the Forbidden City


Long line of those wanting to view Mao's body

After Tiananmen Square (if you are not bored with all this history/travel narrative, I am impressed!), we explored the Forbidden City for several hours. The Forbidden City, once home to emperors and off limits to common people for over 500 years, was massive, and we shared it with hoards of umbrella-carrying/matching-hat-wearing tour groups. Good to see nonetheless.

Forbidden City:






Finally our weary legs took us to the immense park of the Summer Palace--former playground to the emperors--with its many gardens, temples and an enormous lake. The three of us relaxed in the shade and enjoyed resting our feet after so much walking in the Forbidden City.


Ricky and I at the 17-arch bridge




Ricky's umbrella saved me from sunburn, and I fit in with the locals.


Sweet, old couple

Tonight we just got back from an impressive performance of Chinese acrobats. Brent was not as initially excited about this as me, but I think he came around. We witnessed amazing feats of flexibility, strength and balance--in my wildest dreams I could not do what I saw tonight despite my one year of being a cheerleader (shout out to Kate and the FWC Cards!). I'm lucky to even do a backbend.







So that is what we have been up to the last three days in Beijing. Before we close, though, we will leave you with yet another cultural observation installment. We've noticed in this intense heat some peculiar methods of cooling off the body. Most notably, the "shirt lift." This is done primarily by men on hot summer days, although the women have a leg variation that seems to do the trick as well. I hope not to look over and catch either Brent or Ricky experimenting with this unique tummy exposure! Here are some examples:








Not sure if it works as well, but this is the woman version mentioned.

Two other interesting facts:
1) Beer is cheaper than water here in Beijing. A large bottle costs the equivalent of $.25, so you can just imagine the revelry that takes place each night at our youth hostel, especially on World Cup nights!
2) After doing a little clothing shopping in China, I have learned that I wear the largest size available to women in skinny Asia. Should I feel bad about this?

Once again, thank you for all your thoughts and prayers and comments, and we'll post next from southeast China, where we are heading tomorrow.


We couldn't help ourselves! This cute kitty was at The Wall.

--Erika