May 2, 20132 min read

Beijing 2013!

Beijing 2013! Beijing, China

Beijing, China- May 2, 2013

Being in Beijing for my birthday was something I could have never imagined! It was such a blessing and great way to bring in 24! 🙂 I dunno how my 25th birthday will be able to top this one. Hahah.. I always need a vacation from my vacation because I love to see and do everything. We definitely didnt do everything but my feet were definitely killing me each night! Beijing is such a big city, I didnt have to use as much mandarin as I need up here in Harbin. So it was a great vacay from the language struggle. (Easy enough if my family ever wanted to visit China. ?.because of the recent Olympics). The city is so easy to navigate through, with buses and a highly efficient train station. I took a soft sleeper train on Friday, April 26thand arrived in Beijing Saturday Morning. I have never been on a sleeper train! Beds and every thing.. I felt like I was going to Hogwarts. My roomates were nice… I was sleeping on the top bunk next to a youngish woman who later told me she worked at the tax bureau and gave me her numberin case I needed help. 🙂 below us was an older couple and they helped me to put my bags away. We arrived in Beijing and I was hyped just because it was about 75 degrees! It was beautiful the entire weekend I was there! 🙂 it was a blessing being able to see the great wall of China. the pictures will never be able to do it justice of the magnificence and beauty that it beholds. Through the steeps hills and steps and through the mountains, it took so much work to get that wall build, the blood and sweat. Coming was a different story of comfort. I not in the sleeper section this go round, i was in the seater which means riding like on the airplan

with all the locals. Lol as soon as i got on the train, it got quiet and everyone stared at me for about 10minutes until, I found my seat, put my luggage away and

hid under my hoodie. I was on a 1p local train back to harbin that would arrive 8am the NEXT day. I was so worried on what i would do for all that time. So about 2 hours in, i started to crochet and out of no where 2 girla came over to me and started staring at me. One of the girls asked me some th ing and i told her i didnt understand. They giggled and tried to use the translator on her iphone to ask me what i was doing? From there, we sparked conversation! I asked them if they wanted to learn how to crochet and they loved it. Everyone began to stare again because they were speaking Mandarin and i was speaking English yet we were conversing and i was teaching them something new. Next thing i knew iwas surrounded by people on the train wonderi ng and watchi ng and chatting with me. My new friend acted as my translator and they all tried to teach me some of the language. It was great. Crocheting opened up the language barrier for me and my long train ride back home wasnt as grueling as i thought. I was taken good care of 🙂 . Day 1 After arriving and checking into the hostel, we wnt to to nanluoguxiang hutong area for Beijing lunch of noodles and lamb kebobs and did some shopping and window shopping at the cute shops that border tha water. That night we went to Tiananmen square and then qianmen street for starbucks and dinner. This is a high class pedestrian street but around it are small hutongs and shops and food spots. So we stopped in a small restaurant for some dong bei cuisine 🙂 Day 2 Woke up early to hit the Forbidden city 🙂 so huge! we then took a quick lunch and found a ‘subway’ yay! We don’t have those in Harbin 🙂 so we got sandwiches and cookies! After lunch was the temple of heaven, which was beautiful. For dinner, we all met up for Tex Mex in the ritsy area 🙂 we on vacay! (So much selection, just like the city) it was cute place and the food was delish. (we tried to see a kung fu show but not enough time 😦 Day 3 we slept in a little later and had a small breakfast @a cafe along the water before hitti ng up the old and new summer palace. The old summer palace was OLD and full of ruins but the new summer palace was beautifully put together. We were starving this day and our feet hurt the most! Probably because it was the hottest day. we ate homestyle cooking in the summer palace along the water and bargained our way out of the area. It was so beautiful! I love to live there if I was an ancient Chinese empress lol. Day 4 We totravled to Badaling to see the Great Wall. The bus was about 2 hours long because of a l ittle bit of traffic. The wall is so big and the walk is lomg however its phenomenal so there was no complaints by me. It was exciting to be able to finally see it! 🙂 Theres an ancient saying from Mao Zedong that He who has never been to the Great Wall is not a great man.