A few hours later, upon arrival in Beijing, this image was replaced by a much different, dirtier, more crowded, less English-speaking one (also, MUCH cheaper- 30 cents for a subway ticket? Yes, please!). Being the brilliant travelers that we are, we easily made our way to our hostel, but not before walking down a rather sketchy-looking side street and thinking, "Oh man, this could be BAD!". Thankfully, the images on hostelbookers.com had not been deceptive, and our hostel turned out to be something of an oasis in the middle of this previously-described city.
For $9 a night, I approved!
Because we arrived rather late, all we did our first day was walk around the area looking for food. And so began the first of many food scavenging escapades. . .
We were starving and couldn't find a single restaurant, let alone one with English! Finally, FINALLY we saw a department store in the distance and gained some hope. Then, just as we were about to cross a street I saw the Pizza Hut sign and freaked out and grabbed Kristin so hard she thought I was rescuing her from being run over (which was a very legitimate possibility- in Beijing the green walking man is a trickster and apparently means "Force cars turning right to stop by walking in front of them and praying they stop on time". Needless to say, we spent the majority of our road-crossings piggybacking with some experienced Chinese person or other). Anyway, we ended up going to the KFC at the same department store, because we are thrifty people. (Sidenote: KFCs are rampant in Beijing- I mean they're like the Tim Hortons of China. On a related note, coffee shops are the opposite of popular there. Which was a culture shock in itself, because you could be blind, deaf, and searching for a bar and still end up in a coffee shop in Daejeon).
The next day we set off early to trek the Great Wall. Being the aforementioned stellar travellers and thrifty folk that we are, we decided to go it on our own, instead of doing the tour offered through our hostel. It would've worked out fine, if people in China spoke English as much as I assumed they would (go ahead, accuse me on insularity, but come on, they just hosted the Olympics. . .) Anyway, for a number of reasons, including the decision not to risk wasting any more time getting unlost, especially because it would apparently take 3-4 hours to get there, we decided to hit up the Beijing Zoo and see the pandas. . .
. . .who were all napping, along with most of the other animals, including the Procyon lotor (aka the raccoon) and the Mephitis mephitis (aka the striped skunk).
Thankfully, on our second walk-around they decided to feed the pandas. Seriously though, I have pictures to prove the inordinate number of sleeping animals in that zoo!
This was the time the random stranger wasn't caught taking a picture of me.
I was happy the elephant was up and moving!
After that, we raced back to the hostel hoping to catch the group bus to the kung fu show, but were undaunted when we didn't. Starving from having not eaten all day we made it to the Red Theatre on our own 5 minutes before the show began and grabbed up some last-minute cheap seat tickets, which ended up being front row-middle seats (six feet away from rock-solid abs = good deal)! It was an awesome show that made me embarrassed to feel accomplished over the fact I can now touch my toes after two months of yoga.
After the show, we were exhausted and hadn't eaten in 9 hours. On our way back to the subway station there was literally nothing open and so on the subway we decided we didn't care if we ate KFC two days in a row and I literally prayed to God that it would be open. And it was.
The next day, we conquered the Temple of Heaven, Tian'anmen Square (massacre, what massacre?), and the Palace Museum (aka the Forbidden City). It was all very impressive looking, but it was also all "Ming this, Qing that", and I so didn't really have any context to put any of it into.
The Seventy Year Old Door at the Temple of Heaven. The door was there exclusively for emperors of 70 or older. It was made especially for an old emperor who was taken there to walk a much shorter way towards the Hall of Annual Prayer. He didn't want his descendents to be lazy so he made a rule that an emperor had to be 70 to use it.
Tian'amen Square
The Forbidden City. Dang, I didn't see The Karate Kid til after, or I would've known to rub the golden knobs on the door for good luck!
On our third day, we decided to take it easy, especially because we had both started limping around with a shin splint on my part, and bloody and blistered feet on Kristin's part, so we went shopping. This is significant because it was at this time that I bought the first ever under-analyzed purchase of my life (I barely looked at the price tags- what!) It was, of all exciting possibilities- a jacket and scarf from H&M because I was cold (under-analyzed, but still pratical- I hadn't completely lost myself!)
In the afternoon, we checked out a Buddhist temple where I was intrigued by the people taking Buddha seriously and the endless number of Buddhas- apparently "there are more buddhas in the universe than grains of sand in the Ganges river".
The Yonghegong Lama Temple where you are constantly prompted by signs to burn three sticks of incense in honour of every buddha there. Whose idea was this I wonder? The guild of incense vendors lining the street outside, perhaps?
That evening we strolled around Wangfujing, a popular shopping area with streets of tourist items where you only dare give items a fleeting look out of the corner of your eye while walking briskly past for fear of otherwise being hounded to death to buy it.
A picture with the Wangfujing sign, I suppose as proof I was there. Also, please note my spontaneous purchases. Disclaimer: KFC capture was unintentional and unavoidable.
Wednesday was the day we conquered the Great Wall! It was a spectacular day, although it started off as complicated as ever. We had previously found the right bus to get us there, and so headed out bright and early, anticipating the 3 hour trip. When we got to the bus station we spent 20 minutes standing in a line wondering why people kept standing in line for 5 minutes and then walking away, until someone kindly informed us via minimal English and extensive hand gestures that this was an express bus for which they needed 45 people, which we were never going to get because people kept leaving the line. So we followed our kind Chinese friend to another bus station down the block and finally were on our way. The best part was that the supposed 3 hour trip was actually only 1 hour!
Upon arrival in the gorgeous Chinese countryside, we realized that we were underdressed for the second day in a row as the wind whipped through our thin sweaters. So we were off shopping again, this time for some lovely tourist hoodies that read "I climbed the Great Wall".
Here I am!
We climbed UP!
We met a fellow Canadian traveller named Jodi who joined us on our trek and whom we ended up spending the rest of the day with (capping off our last day in China by eating Italian food!)
The Great Wall of China. This doesn't do it justice, it's only a miniscule fraction of the 2 000 km that remain of the once 6 500km wall.
And that is that! The next day we headed home, and Korea really did feel like home- it had signs with letters I could read, even if I didn't know what the words they spelled meant; and a language that sounded oddly recognizable, even if I only knew 20 words; and coffee shops; and food that is now familiar; and now waiting five minutes at a crosswalk isn't such a big deal, because I know that when the green walking man finally does appear, I can trust him.
