Set Loose in Beijing: May 15

Date: Thursday, May 15
Time: 9:01 PM Beijing
Location: Bed 121-F of Far East International Youth Hostel

I meant to make this a daily journal but after writing characters for close to six hours yesterday (through all of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers), my hand was aching last night. Well, writing tonight is no problem--my hands don't ache, but everything else does. I have been walking almost continuously for 12.5 hours. If you know me and are having a hard time believing this, I assure you that through the latter part of the trip, all I wanted to do was sit down and in the street and cry--partly because for a significant portion of time my knee hurt worse than my ankle and there's nothing to blame the knee on but excess weight. I really have to do something about that soon/now. Between the ever-hated bra and a too heavy purse, my shoulders are killing me. I'm attributing all other pain to ankle injury and walk.

Alrighty, backing up now to where I left off with the last entry:

The plane landed safe and sound in the Beijing Airport and we sailed through customs and VISA checks without incidence. Our bus driver from the hostel was waiting with a sign and watched our bags while we changed over dollars and traveler's checks for Yuan. We went out to the bus and started the drive through Beijing. Window open for a nice breeze and pictures without glass, I noticed a couple of things:

1) Gorgeous landscaping. With the Olympics less than 90 days away, sod, hedges, and flower beds are being put in the ground at a tremendous rate (and they look great).

2) Tinted windows in vehicles seem fairly popular here--the scary thing is, the driver's window is tinted too. Having walked the streets myself today I realize bikes, vehicles, and pedestrians don't share the road here--they fight for it.

3) Urban renewal side by side with urban decay. While there are plenty of tall glass and steel high rises, they're often accompanied by shanty towns right next door-homes that it was hard to even recognize at first that people lived in.

The bus pulled up as close to the hostel as it could get us, which was a couple of blocks away. A little surprised, we dragged our suitcases through the construction. The hostel itself looked very nice. Six to a room, three bunks, six lockers, a few chairs, a table, and we were good to go. Blanket rolls and pillows were in our lockers, and we each have our own built in light by the bed.

Dr. Chandler led us out to dinner just after we settled in. Lots of dumplings and not really to my taste. I'll have to ease into things, but I was grateful for my Slimfast bar. After quick emailing, i went to bed early and woke up around 4 AM.

Thursday's plan had been for an 8:30 breakfast at the hostel, but I'm pretty sure we were all up and eating by seven or earlier. Around 8:00 we started walking to the Forbidden City (not so forbidden...they let me in after all). We bought maps on the way and stopped for a photo-op in Tianamen Square, and then bought our tickets in. We'd only just left the ticket counter when probably half a dozen people converged on a man and started beating him. No idea how or why. Some had security shirts, others were plain clothes security according to Dr. Chandler--they all left quickly and in less than a minute the police were there in a van. Oddly the man didn't look particularly worse for the wear. Around that time, Dr. Chandler left us, reminding us to stay in groups, and that he'd see us back at the hostel later. We were alone.

The group split into two main groups. Kiersten and I decided that we'd be our own group and maybe catch up with another one later. The architecture was amazing. The little museum rooms housed clothes and weapons. The Royal Treasure Room had display cases of 400 year old teapots. After that, the adventure really got started.

Dr. Chandler had suggested we visit the Hall of Clocks--which really was worth a good visit. Long story short, Kiersten and I separated inside the museum (it wasn't more than about 2 rooms), and we lost each other.After a while, unable to find her among the clocks, I sat by the only entrance exit, watching to see if she came out and i had somehow missed her inside.

I met up with three girls from the trip on their way in. I told them I'd lost her and, when they went in and came out again they confirmed her non-presence in the Hall of Clocks. I missed my cell phone so much today...and missed everyone else having theirs. Keeping our eyes open and unable to do anything else, we found our way out and started to look for the fancy shopping district Dr. Chandler had recommended nearby.

We walked around, window shopped, and practiced our Chinese until we found a place that looked good for lunch. Two of us ordered food we loved, the other two still had full plates when we left. My plate was full, though I did eat half a bowl of rice. Live and learn.

Seeking out a bookstore for dictionaries, we ran into another group, and shouted across the street. Dr. Chandler had found Kiersten and she was with another group now, and they were worried about me, not knowing if I'd found anyone. Tonight, I found out that about the time we parted ways with this group is probably when we started going the wrong way.

Among our best stops was a 2 Yuan store and a beauty supply store where we chatted for a long time with the girls there and learned some new characters. Besides that we looked in on several shops, walked, and refrained from drinking--didn't want to have to use the non-western toilets while we were out. it was some time before three that we decided to actively seek out the hostel and ended up entirely in the wrong direction. We were following the map to the Roast Duck Restaurant and He Ping subway exit. There are two of each of them, both next to each other, both on opposite sides of the same street. It was late afternoon when we met the English teacher. She and her assistant told us they taught English and their professor friend did calligraphy, and we should have him write our Chinese names. We knew we were lost by that point and grateful to have English speakers at hand, followed.

The professor painted our names while the assistant showed us the professor's silk paintings and the teacher talked again about her students' upcoming cultural exchange trip to San Fransisco that they were raising money for. She gave us water and the calligraphy of our names, and when they came down on the price, we did end up buying some amazing silk paintings. We knew that had been the purpose in inviting us, but that was okay.

She walked us out and, offering to give us directions, we showed her the card with the hostel's address. We'd been going the wrong way on the right street when we met her. By now I knew I was footsore and cranky and my knee was burning. We should have taken the subway hours before. But now we knew where were going and they wanted to keep walking.

Near Tianamen Square for the second time that day, we met a girl from Hong Kong who spoke some English and walked together for a ways. When we were finally near the hostel, we stopped in at what turned out to be a great Korean restaurant around 7:30. Everything was really good. We got back to the hostel a bit after 8:30 and it was already dark. After catching up with Kiersten I laid down to start writing. I am still so sore. Tomorrow we're seeing the Great Wall in the morning and the afternoon is free to do as we like.

I should have gone to sleep an hour ago, but I really needed to catch up on this before anymore "adventures" hit.

Erin

Location: Bed 121-F, Far East International Youth Hostel
Time: 10:54 PM Beijing
Date: Thursday, May 15