北京欢迎你！Beijing!....

It's been a few days and now the group is back in Hangzhou with the humidity and rain. Beijing was wonderful. We arrived Friday morning and went straight to Tiananmen Square (where what happened there is still pretty obscured) and the Forbidden city where once only the emperor and royalty walked. We saw the dragon carved path down the middle where only the emperor could walk and many treasures of the past. The architecture was wood of vibrant reds, blues, greens, and golds. It was crazy to think of all the important people's footsteps we were walking in, and to see the absolute lavishness of their lives Then we took rickshaws through the little alley ways of Beijing to a traditional style house. For dinner we checked out a street full of food stands containing all sorts of every day food as well as odds and ends. Jack was brave enough to try some scorpion which apparently tastes pretty good. I went with fresh strawberries and grilled corn. ....Not so brave. Later we took the metro and arrived at our hotel on 体育馆路(the street). It was very nice and the beds were much softer than our ones here at school. I was pretty thankful for that after an exhausting few days of travel.

Saturday was The Great Wall (长城). It was absolutely breathtaking!... in more than one way. The part of the wall we visited was very hilly and very broken down in parts....not the really touristy part. The sun beat down on us as we climbed up and down that great symbol of Chinese history. It is an adventure in itself. You can't help but stop and stare in awe and enjoy the challenge it poses. It was really hot and at one point all the guys had their shirts off. Quite a hilarious sight for some Chinese tourists. It was tiring work, but after a while I caught my second wind and was able to make it back to civilization. We were then welcomed back with a dinner of Beijing roast duck, chrysanthemum fish, and an assortment of other fine Chinese dishes. It was one of my favorite meals so far. After that we had the night to recover from our physical exhaustion and sunburns.

Sunday was The Sumer Palace, the former summer palace, hot pot, and a Kongfu show. The Summer Palace is where we learned about Empress Dowager Cixi, or the Dragon lady. She brought ruin to many Chinese people with her careless spending and ruled through young emperors by sitting behind a screen and tapping on their shoulders with a stick during political meetings. Not exactly someone to admire. We then went to the former summer palace which I enjoyed much more. It was full of natural beauty and of course the ruins. For some reason ruins are much more interesting to me than something perfectly preserved. We quickly ate at a hot pot restaurant where you cook your own food in a hot flaming pot of soup. Quite delicious. Then at the kongfu show we saw some amazing feats of the human body, including a man balancing a child on top of a ladder on top of his head. My favorite part was the ribbon dancing where sheets of fabric hung from the ceiling and actors suspended themselves with them.

Monday was our last day and we managed to fit in seeing Pandas at the zoo and the Temple of Heaven which apparently contains the center of the universe..... As with much Chinese architecture, numbers have great symbolic significance there. Especially the number nine that symbolizes the emperor being the son of god or otherwise a perfect being. The closest you can get to god. There were nine steps to each of the levels of the platforms and so on. There is also the echo wall that is supposed to be so perfectly round that it amplifies the voice of the emperor for all to hear. It actually works pretty well! As for the Pandas, well they were absolutely fricken adorable. Even the manliest of men could look at them and not melt into a puddle. That was all we got to see of the zoo, because of course we needed some time for some last minute shopping! I managed to blow a lot of the money that was so hard to spend previously. Still not a terrible amount, but I managed to find clothes that fit me and I've got a few nick nacks to bring back for people! So don't worry, you will get your little piece of China if you are on my nice list ;P. Anyways, it's good to be back and we had a lot of fun. I think the trip will be winding down from now on with a few smaller trips and finishing up classes. But we will see.