Hi! My name is Stanley, and I am currently visiting the bustling city of Beijing, China, on my way to Zhengzhou to make a new friend - Jack. This trip has been a lot of fun so far, but I am very tired after two very full days of sight-seeing with my traveling companions Deborah and Katie. Not to mention the very little sleep I got the night before all this touring began. I really must talk to someone about our accommodations as the Trader’s Hotel is very nice, but for some reason I keep having to sleep in a backpack. Hm. But enough about that, let me tell you about Beijing.
On Friday we started out with a nice western buffet breakfast here at the hotel. Okay, so they didn’t let me eat from the buffet, I am a dog after all, but it was a good start to the day for Deborah and Katie. After breakfast though our whole group got together and headed out to downtown Beijing. First stop – Tiananmen Square. This was very interesting, but also very crowded. There was a very long line of people waiting (our guide said for 2-3 hours, but it looked much longer than that) to spend one minute each in front of Chairman Mao’s black crystal coffin. We did not choose to join the line of mausoleum visitors, but we did have some time to look around and laugh at the Chinese tourists asking to take pictures of the American children in our group.
After spending some time at Tiananmen Square, our next stop was The Forbidden City which is right across the street. This also was extremely crowded and we really didn’t see very much of it. Our guide walked us from one end to the other (which made me dog-tired), but the crowds made it difficult to really stop and see anything in particular. Still, it was fun to roar at the stone lions and drink from the giant cisterns.
Once outside the Forbidden City we found ourselves on the most perilous part of our trip so far as we attempted to cross a busy intersection there in downtown Beijing. This may not seem like much of a feat, but since we arrived at the rendezvous point before our bus arrived and were for some reason not waiting on the sidewalk it was definitely not the “safe” choice. We all survived, however, and soon headed out for lunch at a Tourist Buffet located across the street from what I’m fairly certain was the Beijing version of the Old Abandoned Old Abandoned Amusement Park (yes, I meant to say Old Abandoned twice). Some people thought the restaurant was so-so, some thought it was not-so-good and other simply didn’t like it, but I thought the food was delectable. Of course, I eat dog food so I may not be the best judge. Oh well.
From lunch we headed to another section of Beijing to see the more historical housing style. We took a Hutong Tour which involved riding in a rickshaw, dodging in and out of traffic, and basically putting our lives in the hands of the very determined rickshaw driver whom I’m fairly certain was named whatever Speed Racer is in Chinese. We had a lovely time visiting a retired middle school physics teacher who graciously showed our group her 200 year-old home - for a small fee that CCAI provided for her, I’m sure. I did not really appreciate the three cats she had in her house, but the cricket in a cage was pretty cool. And the garden area looked like a great place to catch a nap. After spending some time visiting and allowing the other members of our group to ask all the real estate questions they desired we headed back to our rickshaw and I pretty much just covered my eyes with my ears for the return trip as our driver was willing to go so far as reach out and grab other rickshaws so we could pass them more quickly. Katie did offer to give me a much safer ride at the end, but it was time to go so we never got the chance. Oh well, maybe next time.
Finally, it was time to return to the hotel. Katie and Deborah had plans to eat dinner with the Show Hope youth team passing through Beijing this weekend on their way home so our first mission was to make contact and determine a meet-up plan. As it turned out, the Show Hope team had been late in their arrival to Beijing so they were still at the Pearl Market. This was good as it gave us a chance to freshen up and rest a bit. About 7:15, however, we headed out once again this time taking a ride in a cab and hoping that the hotel accurately wrote down our destination on the card they gave us. Luckily, all was well and we were soon among friends. Well, among Katie and Deborah’s friends, I personally had never heard of these people before but they were all very nice and the food smelled really yummy. I have to admit though that I did choose to stay in my backpack for safety reasons as I was a bit frightened by the live seafood in the front of the restaurant and wasn’t particularly comfortable with how some of the hungry clientele was looking at me. It probably would have been safe to come out, but after my long day I wasn’t taking any chances.
Well, that about sums up Friday. After dinner we headed back to the hotel and just plain crashed, much like I’m going to do now. I know you all want to hear about my adventures at the Jade Factory and on the Great Wall, but I’m pretty sure they will make much more sense if I can rest a bit before jumping into them. So, for now, I’m going to go climb into my backpack and snuggle down for the night. I will be sure to catch you up tomorrow, though. Good night!
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