China: Day 4

Day 4

Okay, this account of China has gone on far too long and I am getting FAR behind on Spring in Korea. With that in mind, here is my last day in Beijing in pictures and videos:

First, a stop at the Lama Temple - the most famous Buddhist temple outside of Tibet.

 

I’m not sure if it was a special occasion for the New Year, but tons of people were burning incense and praying. We strolled through the five main halls, snapped a photograph of a giant Buddha (got yelled at my security) and decided to move on to the next destination before frost bite set in.

 

Next stop, the National Olympic Stadium – aka “The Bird’s Nest”.

 

After watching the 2008 Olympics, this was a must see so soon after all of the work that China put into hosting the event. The Bird’s Nest was pretty fascinating to see up close, but long lines (and freezing temperatures) prevented us from venturing inside to get a different perspective. Instead, we walked around the park to see all of the new buildings constructed specifically for the event, and then tried out a new subway line that was also recently built.

 

Last on the agenda was the weird food market! We were hungry for some scorpions!

  

 

 

With an open mind I bit into the deep fried, seasoned scorpion that looked a lot like the ones you find back in Arizona, and I was pleasantly surprised. The worst part was that you had to chew it for quite a while, like the bad end of an asparagus. The flavor wasn’t half bad, but I don’t think I would go back for seconds.

 

Other possible treats that I didn’t partake in were locus, starfish, BIG scorpions, seahorses, crickets, various animal testicles and penises… I didn’t want to upstage Bear Grylls.

 

THE END

China: Day 3

Day 3

The Great Wall! If you’re reading this, you’ve probably already ready my post on this amazing day. Hands down it was the highlight of the trip. What I didn’t mention in the earlier post is that we were on the wall for SIX hours!

To get to the wall we hired a cab driver to take us two and a half hours out of the city to Jingshanling. The agreement was that we did the 10K to another part of the wall called Simatai. The driver would meet us there and take us home.

At first I felt bad that he would have to wait for us, but when he picked us up at 7am his wife was in the front seat to keep him company for the day. It was a holiday, so I was happy to know we weren’t keeping him away from his family.

The 10K was only supposed to take 4 hours, but we were having such a great time enjoying the views, sunny weather and taking pictures that we stretched it to 6 hours. By the time we met up with the driver, we were exhausted and he might have been a little irritated with our lollygagging.

That night Rob reluctantly agreed to some Chinese opera, but in all reality it was not a variety show with a display of Beijing Opera. The Lao She Teahouse is pretty famous for these shows and has been visited by various world leaders and celebrities. Unfortunately, there was not photography during the show, so I have no visual images to display… the few I did snap were really blurry.