Monday, September 3, 2012

China Journal Post 11 - Arrival in Beijing

We got in around 10:30 at night.  During the drive to our hostel I was introduced to the severe lack of a driving system in Beijing.  If I wasn’t so tired I probably would have been frightened.  Three lane roads turn into four lane roads, magically.  Lines on the road are more guidelines than actual rules.  Blinkers and signals are just pretty lights for decoration.  And the horn is a fun musical instrument!

We arrived, in one piece, to our hostel where I was pleasantly surprised by our room (which had a Western toilet!).  And very nice beds. Well, they actually felt like wooden planks, but it felt great after thirteen hours on a plane!  The view out our window wasn’t exactly glamorous, but hey!  It’s a hostel!  I also got to finally meet Saebra, the girl with whom I’ll be spending the next four months teaching English with. (Yes, I am aware I just ended a sentence with a preposition… I’m teaching spoken English, not grammatical stuff!)
 
 

We went straight to sleep, of course.  We were to begin at Tiananmen Square bright and early the next morning at 7:45am.  It sounds early, but I was bright eyed and bushy tailed at 5am.  Since we had time, we decided to run to the shop across the street where they told us the night before we could buy water! 
 
 

Looks like a pretty normal/cute little shop right?  Well, we went inside, and just as I was going to ask the lady for some shui (water), I heard a grunting just next to me.  There was a naked man sleeping on a bed inside the shop!  I don’t even know which part of that to not italicize!  (PS, look carefully through the window to the right and you’ll see him.  And this picture was taken days later!)  Yep, what a good welcome to China!  ACK! (I left this picture big for your enjoyment)

Well, we did buy our water.  And water is surprisingly cheap here.  Only 4 yuan for a big bottle (you can see them on the ground to the left).  That’s less than a dollar! 

 Then we continued on to Tiananmen!  And the Chinese History Museum (I don’t remember the exact name of it, but all those “National History Museums” basically have the same name).  And we visited the Forbidden City and after that, those who wanted to (which included myself along with my aching tired feet) could climb the hill/mountain to view the Forbidden City from above and see a giant golden Buddha.
 
 

The picture above is me in Tiananmen Square.  Behind me is the entrance to the Forbidden City.  Note the sky.  And the solid gray color.  The smog in Beijing is disgusting.  Always just a solid gray sky.  No clouds.  No bright sunlight.  Just gray.  It’s not always overcast in Beijing as some will tell you.  It’s just smoggy.

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