The Rest of Beijing

There's a lot to cover from the rest of my week in Bejing, i'll try to keep it brief.

Tuesday 3/24

Wake up at 7am and head to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall- it was absolutely incredible. We took a gondola up the mountain to the wall, walked a pretty decent stretch of it, and then rode tobogans back down the mountain(SO FUN!). The section we visited stretches along a series of treacherous mountains, and the wall itself is actually much steeper and harder to walk than I expected. Given that I was out of breath just walking a long the wall, I can't even begin to imagine how much hard labor went into building it. A quick notes about the Great Wall:
It is not 1 single connected wall. Rather there are a few different stretches of wall built in the northern mountainous regions of China. These strecthes were built under different rulers at different times, but all with the common purpose of protecting China from Mongol raiders to the north.


After the great wall we headed to the Ming Tombs, where deep underground the emperor's of the Ming dynasty are buried. I was less than impressed.....

Wednesday 3/25
On Wednesday we went to the Olympic Village which is home to the Water Cube, Birds Nest, and other incredible architectural feats that were built for this past summers olympic games. Though I was astounded by the architecture I was even more astounded by the amount of people who must have been displaced in order to build this gigantic village.

Thursday 3/26
Thursday we took a rickshaw tour of some of the remaining Hutong neighborhoods in Beijing. Hutongs are traditional chinese communal houses, many of which are around 200 years old. In recent years, the Hutongs have been bulldozed in order to make space for high rise buildings and factories. The neighborhood we visited, near the Beijing bell tower (which we also visited), is one of the few Hutong hoods that is protected as a historic sight.

That night we had farewell dinner at a restaraunt called Karorouji in the Shishahai area. Karorouji is one of the oldest restaurants in Beijing and serves an incredible Peking duck. Later we went to a nightclub called Bananas, that is famous for its spring loaded dance floor.

Friday 3/27
We spent Friday independently exploring Beijing before our 7:30 train back to Shanghai. Me and a group of friends went to the Temple of Heaven, which is a series of temples in which the Chinese emperor performed rituals to put heaven and earth back into balance. Without a tour guide to show us around, that is basically the extent of my knowledge about the Temple of Heaven, but it was beautiful and a lot of fun.

Enjoy the pictures.

The Great Wall of China













































































































Video of some of my tobogan ride down the great wall.



Entrance to the Ming Tombs


















The Olympic Village

7 Star Hotel in the Olympic village.


















The Water Cube
























































































The Birds Nest







































































Beijing Bell Tower
























Courtyard of a traditional Hutong



















The Temple of Heaven

Chinese Rocker/ Summer Palace

Another full day.

This morning we started the day with an incredible lecture and discussion with a guy named Kaiser Kuo. Kaiser, who strangely enough just got back to Beijing from SXSW, was a member of China's first rock band, Tong Dynasty; who had the number 1 album in China in 1992. Up until the 1970's/1980's, China had very little contact with the western world and thus no access to rock music, Kaiser in contrast was an American born Chinese and had had contact with rock music his whole life. In the mid 1980's while studying in Beijing, he and a friend tracked down a music store and began playing a few classis rock songs together:AC/DC, Led Zepplin, etc., within minutes the store had been surrounded and filled by Chinese people off the street who having no previous access to this type music were astounded and intrigued. It was this experience that lead Kaiser to become further involved in rock music in China, as he realized the opportunity that lie for a musician with literally no competition in a country that was starved for rock and roll.

After quitting the band he worked for a variety of internet related companies and continued to produce and manage bands, he is now doing research for a book in which he will address cultural issues and confussions that exist between Americans andChinese. Kaiser has a vast knowledge about China's music scene, intellectual property rights, and Chinese internet culture and made for one of the most interesting and verbally colorful lectures I have ever heard, I wish I had time to thoroughly write about it.....

After the lecture, I had lunch and then visited the Summer Palace. Pictures below.

48 hours

I haven't been in Beijing long, but its an incredible city, and it is sooo different than Shanghai I can't even believe it is the same country.

Based on how crazy these past two days have been, as well as how packed my itinerary is for the rest of the week, I doubt that I will have much time to sit down and seriously write about my experiences here. That being said, I will make an effort to write as much as I can and definitely to upload pictures from everything that I do. Below is a brief play by play of the past 48 or so hours of my life.

Friday:
4pm: (still in Shanghai) I got my first chinese haircut. I was terrified to do this as almost every person in China has a bad haircut (thats 2 billion bad haircuts!). The fact that I would be unable to comunicate what I wanted to the barber made me even more nervous about the experience. In the end- hour and half experience including a wash, massage and I got a half decent hair cut- 20 quai.

7:30pm:
Board what would become the "party car" of the night train to Beijing. There are no Pg 13 stories to tell from this ride.

Saturday
6:00am: Arrive in Beijing. Immediately head to the hotel to check in and have breakfast. From there, go to a local coffee house, The Book Worm, to hear a lecture on the changing face of architecture in Beijing (try to hold back sleep). After lecture, have lunch and then head to Tianamen Square and the Forbidden city. These were both incredible sights, I wish I had more time to write about the architecture and history, but I'm trying to keep brief so I've uploaded pictures (maybe next week when I get home from Beijing I'll write a reflective post where i'll include more historical information).

10:00pm: Still no sleep. Go clubbing Beijing style.

Sunday
1:00pm: Head to Beijing's art district called 798, this was an incredible area where we spent the day touring gallerys and drinking too much wine at out-door cafes. I was so suprised by this district, I felt more like I was in a funky New York neighborhood than in China; the artwork was also much more racy than I expected (this expectation being based solely on the small ammount of knowledge I have of Chinese culture and art).

This is all I really have time to write about for now.... Enjoy the pictures, more to come.

Train station in Beijing














Tianamen Square














Red Flags in Tianmen Square



















Though Tianamen square and the forbidden city are some of the biggest tourist attractions in China, there are actually very few foreigners visiting these sites. Majority of the tourists are actually Chinese, many of whom are from interior China and have have never seen a foreigner in person. This group of guys followed us for about 20 minutes, taking candid pictures, and openly staring at us......very creepy.














Gotta love the littlest party members















Portrait of Mao Zedong














Mao and A guard














One more of Mao for good measure














About to enter the Forbidden City





























Inside the Foribidden City














The Forbidden City














The President of Uraguay at the forbidden city, he must have heard I was going.....














More forbidden City


























































Pagodas in the North side of the forbidden city, near the emperor's garden














Dragon Sculpture in the garden



















Another pagoda















I absolutely love Chinglish translations. This one warns of the perilous danger of climbing these 5 foot rocks......



















Climbing a small hill, towards a pagoda.















Looking down on the forbidden city from the Pagoda. Notice the smog.















798 - a factory district in Beijing that has been taken over by art gallerys, museums and cafes.














In an interesting artistic taxidermy shop: some great preserved hampsters- (I actually bought this, thought we could put it up in the living room at home, what do you think mom???)














Very cool picture from a gallery in 798














Gallery in 798





























Dragons