Beijing: Acrobatics Stuff

10-20
We ventured back to Tiananmen Square again today, since the weather was nicer.  The line for Chairman Mao was way too long, and you weren't allowed to bring in anything--if you had a camera they would make you throw it away.  I wasn't too keen on seeing Mao so I held onto Pieter and Dave's stuff while they went in.  They weren't that impressed either, so we left.
That night I went with the hostel to a chinese acrobatics show.  It was awesome, but we weren't allowed to take any pictures.   There were jugglers, bike riders, flexible ladies, and girl who creepily bent their heads to the side in unison.
After the show I went with this Swiss girl (also at the show) to this excellent hole in the wall restaraunt who must have used the Chinese google to translate their menu into English.  There were dishes like "Exploding Buddha Crotch" and "The water boils the beef".  We tried to get the buddha crotch but they were out.  

I got some nan bread, but nan also means "difficult" in Chinese, which the bread kinda was, to eat.  Indian Nan it wasn't.  The peanuts in vinegar dish was amazing, as was the cucumber salad, but I was taking a risk eating cold stuff that was probably washed in tap water.  It was worth it.

Beijing: Great Wall Stroll

10-19
Today I got up early to take a trip with the hostel to the Great Wall.  They were taking us to a more remote portion of the wall that tends to not draw so many tourists.  It was a 2 hour drive from Beijing that put majority of the passengers on our mini bus to sleep.  I had saved a few Bao Zi's from the previous night to feed myself and was lured into devouring them before we had arrived.  It's so hard to resist when they are so good.

 So the wall was really cool. I just took a tour from the hostel--really convenient since it was like a 2 hour drive. We got to hike 3 Km on it, which passed by 21 towers.  I walked with Pieter and occasionally with a guy from Argentina who was wearing a barn coat and liked to keep his hands in his pockets.

The only funny thing I can mention about the great wall was that there were lots of older people hiking in groups, decked out like a hiker santa claus with gear.  They were funny because they looked so hiker serious, yet the wall was really an easy stroll.  I asked one of them how far they were doing, and she said, emphatically, "50 Kms in 50 days".   They were on day two, and so far, were not bored with it.  For me, that would be too much, but they were trucking along, as fast as paint dries. 

We were the first from our group to make it to the last tower.  The lady who was guiding our tour had ridden with the van to the end and said we were too fast.  We thought we took plenty of time, but we knew we were in for a wait.  There was a guy up there selling beer which sounded kind of good.

Pieter and I went back to the phone book restaraunt for dinner.  I really just wanted vegetables, so I got some hot and sour soup and some bock choy with chestnuts.  Pieter ordered the rice bucket.  The bucket really made that dish.

Beijing: Tianamen Scams

10-18
Today I got up to miserable and cold rain.  It was like Chairman Mao had become the moon, was frozen, and is now thawing.  I went over to the cafe for the FREE breakfast.  I ended up running into Pieter and this Australian guy in the cafe;  the three of us decided to walk down to Tianamen Square and give our regards.   It was pretty ok.  A super large space--I tried to imagine what it would have been like with those tanks, but the weather really made it tough, as I was hiding like a turtle in his shell, in my rain shell, which was also green.  A chinese couple came up to us speaking English and tried to scam us into going to one of those tea shops with them.  It was satisfying to have a brush with attempted Chinese crime and escape.

After Tienamen Square we retreated back to the hostel, defeated yet again by the bad weather.  At least on the way back, we were able to stop for some more Bao Zi.  We are crazy fans of the Bao Zi: steamed bread with a surprise filling.  Sometimes you have to be careful though, because one of the BaoZi's is more like a BaoZi-Grenade as it is filled with soup.
I stayed around the hostel that night--most people were kept in because of the weather, so someone put on the new Karate Kid movie.  It was only fitting because it takes place in Beijing.  It seemed pretty accurate.  They totally showed all the touristy stuff I had just seen.

Beijing: Forbidden City and other nearby things

I got up and ventured out on my own for my first day in Beijing--I usually like to keep to my feet on my first day in a new city, especially the larger, more overwhelming ones.  I have to be a bit more conscious about security in China--pickpocketing is much more rampant and scams abound.  I talked to a guy from Argentina last night who lost his wallet in the subway station.  I always keep my wallet in my front pocket, and most of my pants have zipper pockets anyway, but I'll put stuff I don't care about in other pockets.  As soon as I got to the street a policeman tugged on my shoulder and said something to me.  I shrugged, then he tugged at my back pocket--oh no--my tourist pamplet.  He laughed.

Our hostel was pretty close to the forbidden city and this park that has great views.  I visited both--they were cool.  Ok, they were very cool.  The park had amazing views, perhaps the best view of my trip, of the Forbidden City, and the Forbidden City was just incredible.  It had amazing open spaces.  Someone tried to scam me into going to an art show, but I took his picture instead and said I would be making my own art today.

this one is for all the Sanzaru Hacky Sackers.  You need to use the Birdly Hacky Sack.  It looks way cooler.

 Despite being a really cool place, I didn't exactly spend a lot of time there.  I wasn't very interested in the insides of the buildings at all--seemed like an assortment of pottery and other minor relics.  No dragon robots or Monkey King statues.

There was a bar attached to the hostel that most guests frequented.  I spent my afternoon there drinking TsingTao.   Finally, after 10 years, I found the true way to pronounce it: "Chin-Dao" (also the name of the city where it is made, but spelled different, hence the confusion).
I went with a 2 Aussies and a Brittish guy to dinner down there road.  Our road, also called Hutong, was a sort of popular tourist way, so most of the businesses cater to Westerners.  The place we went to was a little bit of an exception.  Although it had a menu the size of a phone book.  Our food was amazing, and it cost about 5 bucks a person.

There were tons of public bathrooms around, because most houses in this area (or maybe all of China--I'm not sure yet) don't have sewers, so they have public ones in the street.  Luckily our Hostel was an exception.