Sunday, March 11th
I stayed up entirely too late on Saturday night and woke up exhausted on Sunday morning. After rushing through breakfast, I jumped on the bus and we headed to the Forbidden City. Beijing this time of year is cold and most of the time I was chilled, even wearing my down jacket. The morning at the Forbidden City was particularly frigid, making the stroll through the gates a little tough to enjoy. We started by passing through Tianamen Square, one of the busiest places in Beijing and the notorious site of peaceful rebellion. From there we entered the city with its traditional Chinese architecture and courtyard after courtyard surrounded by high red walls.
The Forbidden City is beautiful, intricate, and huge; though after visiting Wat Prakeaw in Bangkok it doesn’t seem quite as magnificent (more to come about that). It was awesome seeing such a famous ancient place, in fact, just being in China was a kind of surreal and exciting experience. I would like to say that I took full advantage of my visit to the city but I was freezing, tired, and desperate for a bathroom most of the time. In a moment of panic I had to dash off from the group to find a “happy room” (the name our guide Wendy used to refer to the bathroom) and upon my failure to find one honestly considered finding a corner in which to relieve myself. Luckily, I found the happy room before I had to weigh the options between wetting myself and being arrested for public indecency in the People’s Republic of China. A friend later told me he saw the look of panic in my eyes, let’s just say it was the sweetest relief I can ever recall.
After the Forbidden City we all boarded the bus for the 1.5 hour drive to the Great Wall. We stopped at a restaurant a couple of miles from the wall and had an incredible lunch. I feel like every meal that we ate was a banquet with 10-12 different dishes placed on our lazy Susan each time. I enjoy the Chinese style of eating which involves placing dishes on the turntable and passing them at will so that everyone can pluck out what they want. And chopsticks, I love them. I want to use them EVERYDAY! The Chinese food was also very good, with the exception of one spice that seems to be a staple and never fails to make my stomach turn. None of the Chinese could give us a name for the spice and generally said it was cumin, I assure you that this vial smell was not cumin. Other than that the food is honestly not all that dissimilar from the typically Cantonese style of Chinese food found in the U.S. There were no crab rangoons but plenty of lo mein and sweet and sour so and so.
On a terribly full stomach I headed off to the Great Wall, excited as I had always found the wall exciting and never seriously entertained the possibility of visiting it. The site did not disappoint and was particularly thrilling to view as I rode the chairlift to the top. The landscape is rugged, dusty, and barren. I know it is winter however I have a hard time imagining this place ever being green. It is so impressive that thousands of years ago people built this mammoth structure on the ridge line of a pretty tall mountain. It was spectacular and beautiful! The photos are more explanatory but I think being there is more impressive than just seeing it. Since we took a chairlift up, the means for descent was a toboggan ride. I was initially skeptical of situating my body on a tiny sled, fitted with a hand brake, and being shoved down a mountain on a tubular track which was a huge mistake on my part. My only regret was that I wish I had ignored more of the slow-down signs and gone faster. The toboggan was a totally unexpected way to experience the Great Wall and totally made me feel like a kid again, especially with my professors participating as well.
At this point of the day I was completely exhausted but allowed myself to willingly be hustled into the Silk Market (basically the same thing as the Pearl Market, cheap and knock off goods that must be haggled for). Alex and I were determined to come out on top at the Silk Market after failing so miserably at the Pearl Market. I was beat but gave it my best go and left with a pair of fake converse (yes, I know it’s ridiculous) and some superfluous knock off luxury items. Being too tired to bother with eating, Alex and I headed up to the room and crashed!
