The Day in Beijing

What a day! There really is no way this blog and the pictures (www.picasaweb.google.com/connolly.kate) can do it justice - it was just an amazing experience. I'll start from the beginning, when Laura and I landed at 5:30 this morning in Beijing. After finally getting off of the plane we made our way through the new terminal of the Beijing Airport. It was massive. I know I said LA was huge the other night, but this terminal made LA look tiny! It was really simple to navigate though, most of the signs were in English. We made it through customs, exchanged currency, got our bags and met the limo driver all within an hour. At 7:00 we arrived at the JW Marriott. Stacey got in last night so she was already in the room. There we both took showers then grabbed some American style breakfast from the executive lounge - we got the hook up at the Marriott since Jay (Stacey's husband) is a platinum gold points member. After breakfast we went down to the lobby to meet our tour guide Richard. Richard works for the Chinese Ice Hockey Association and will also be in Harbin with us. Richard also brought his wife, Claire, along for the tour. With them and our driver Leo, we were going to see the Juyong Guan section of the Great Wall, the Ming Dynasty tombs, Forbidden City and Tianamen Square.

Our first stop of the day was the Juyong Guan section of the Great Wall. On the way out to the Wall we drove by the Birds Nest and the Olympic Water Cube, both of which look even cooler in person than they do on tv. It took about 45 minutes to get to this section, which is one of the less touristy sections. It was breathtaking - I definitely understand why it is one of the 7 Wonders of the World. The section we visited wound up and around the mountains. After we parked we started to hike the wall. We hiked up and around the mountain and back down the other side. The steps were all different sizes, some were really small and others were up to my knee. The mountain was really steep and if I had to guess I'd say we climbed about 2,000 steps. It was quite the workout to say the least. Along the way we stopped at the different guard houses and saw some temple relics. It really was just like you see in the history books. Words can't do it justice.

After the Wall we headed to the Ming Dynasty tombs. These included some secret garden type areas as well as an underground chamber. It was really neat, however I think we were all slightly jaded from the Great Wall. However, I think this is where we began to truly experience Chinese culture. It started while we were waiting in line for tickets and Claire offered us a Chinese fruit - not really sure what it was called. We were all very hesitant to take it but we also didn't want to look rude so we gave it a try. It basically looked like an orange tomato with a jelly type substance inside. You squeeze the fruit and the jelly comes out a hole in the top. It wasn't bad but certainly wasn't something I'd eat on a regular basis. However this was nothing compared to our experience in the bathroom. Now we had all been warned that you should try to use the bathroom at your hotel but after chugging a bottle of water after our hike it was inevitable that we were going to have to pee. We figured that because this was a major tourist attraction the bathrooms might be safe...WRONG! We all headed in to the room with our toilet paper and purell in hands and everything looked normal until we opened up the stall doors. Instead of your typical western style toilet, there was a small porcelain tub with a hole in the middle. Yes, we had to use squatty pottys. The smell was awful and toilet (if you can even call it that) was stained yellow. And to make things even worse, the Chinese plumbing system can't handle toilet paper so there is a trash can next to the toilet for you to throw your paper - and this trash can definitely isn't emptied very often. I think we were all scarred for life from this experience, however the scary part of all of this was this was just the beginning of our induction into Chinese culture.

After the tombs we headed to lunch at an authentic Chinese restaurant. Now let me preface this with we had all discussed that we were going to be vegetarians while we were over here. Unfortunately things didn't work out according to plan. We were sat at a big round table with a lazy susan type center to rotate the family style type dishes around the table. Richard got a menu and just started ordering with the waitress - the only thing he asked us is if we liked duck and fish. Not that a menu would have really helped us anyway, the entire thing was in mandrin but at least we could have pointed to some of the pictures of things that looked good but Richard would have none of that. The first item comes out and it is duck feet. That's right, I said duck feet, complete with webbing and all. Stacey chickened out but Laura and I did have a small nibble and yes, they tasted as gross as they sound. We also were given a full chicken, complete with head sitting on the plate. There were a few good things we ate but needless to say, if we weren't already scarred from the squatty potty we were all now officially scarred for life.

After lunch we experienced some of the infamous Beijing traffic while on our way to Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. We also all realized how spoiled we are living in areas where smoking is prohibited in most areas. Our driver smokes and by the time we got there my eyes felt terrible and both Stacey and Laura were ready to rip their contacts out of their eyes. Once we finally got to Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, we walked around a little bit and took a few pictures and got out of there. It was neat, but most of the buildings looked the same and while it was impressive, it really couldn't measure up to the wall.

After Tiananmen Square we got a ride back to the hotel and have been here ever since just relaxing in the executive lounge. It is now 9:30 and since I haven't been in a bed since Thursday night I think it is time that I pass out. We have to be up and out of here really early tomorrow to catch our flight to Harbin.

I posted a bunch of pictures at www.picasaweb.google.com/connolly.kate - click on the China link.