我媽媽 - Beijing Edition

Beijing is one of those places that has so much to do and so much to see that it's hard to believe that anyone can even begin to chip away a dent in the long list of activities. But by golly, if my mom and I didn't try our darndest to see it all in this enormous city.

I began this trip to Beijing by reading "The Last Days of Old Beijing" by Michael Meyer on my kindle. It was on an Amazon best reads list the day I happened to be downloading books for my trip, and it ended up being great. It gave me a broader understanding of the history of Beijing and why it looks the way it does today, (two words: Olympics 2008.) So if you happen to be traveling to Beijing soon, or if you're just interested in reading a book that combines history, urban development, and funny stories about teaching like the ones I tell, it's the right book for you.

We stayed in a beautiful bed and breakfast deep within the type of alleyway, (called a hutong) for which Beijing is very famous. The room was small, as many rooms are considering how overpopulated China is, but it was a really nice place to stay.

Don't interrupt a girl eating toast

The breakfast part of bed and breakfast

The hutong where we stayed

Our first full day in Beijing was really, well, full! We started off at Tiananmen Square, which was really uneventful because according to China, no events happened there to begin with. From there, we went to the Forbidden City, to Jingshan Park for a view of the entire palace, to Beihai Park for a boat ride, and to the touristy Hohai area. And if that wasn't enough, later that night we had dinner at an excellent restaurant called Black Sesame, where diners can sit in the kitchen and watch the chef prepare the meal. After the dinner, we ended up in a random bar with the other people at our dinner way in a labyrinth of hutongs. The bar looked like someone's home from the outside but ended up being a cute establishment in the inside.

In front of Tiananmen 

A traditional Chinese pose in front of the Forbidden Temple 

In the palace 

Forbidden dragon

Touch the lion for good luck!

The garden 

Ima walking in the garden

Me in the garden

Flowers and pagodas 

Awwwwww

Following the leader

View from Jingshan Park

View of us and the palace from Jingshan park

 

In Hohai

At the dinner

Delicious eggplant

So, we did a shot of 白酒 (baijiu.) Good times.

The next day was dedicated to the Great Wall. We arranged to go to a very out-of-the-way area in a small town called Gubeikou. For those interested, it was the "Winding Dragon" section of the wall, but no one we spoke to was familiar with this section. It is much less popular because it's totally unrestored. The walkway was narrow with a steep drop on either side. It also happened to be the only week of the year that the "apricot blossom" trees bloom (we're pretty sure they're apricot blossoms, but there may have been a translation error) and so the view was dotted with white flowers. Apparently the time we went was the best time to go, according to the old man who ran the ticket office, because that day the most amount of trees were in bloom, but the flowers would start to fall down the following day. Pretty sweet. Near the end of our trip, my mom and our guide waited for me at a tower thirty minutes away and I got to hike out further by myself. There was something so incredible about being out on this historic, larger-than-life world wonder all by myself.

The. Wall. And. Apricot blossoms.

Ima and our guide, Sonia

Mother/daughter Great Wall day!

Had to take selfies, since I was all alone :)

Winding wall

Picturesque

Oh, self-timer, thanks for proving I was on the wall.

Can you spot the China Doll?
(bonus points for finding Sonia!)

Our next day, we woke up early for a market tour and Chinese cooking class. Later, we went to the Lama temple...

Unsurprisingly, Sabra was the star of the class

A++++++++

香菜牛肉
(Stir fry beef with chilli, Sichuan pepper, and coriander)

麻婆豆腐
(Mapo doufu, spicy tofu) 

三杯鸡
(Three cup chicken)

干扁四季豆
(Spicy green beans)

Bell tower

Spinning thing that sends your prayers off

Incense

 With yet another early start, we headed to Panjiayuan Market AKA the "dirt" market AKA the "antique" market of Beijing (the real antiques are few and far between, it's mostly chotchkies.) Later, we visited the Kingdom of Heaven, an area which used to be a religious site for the emperors, but now it is mostly just a beautiful garden area. From there, we walked to Qianmen Street, which is a large modern shopping area with intricate hutongs filled with cheap-y trinket places and restaurants behind it. That night, we got dinner with a friend from Grinnell, Meg, who is spending a semester in Beijing. She took us to a really funky Tibetan restaurant, which included live music and dancing...

Off to bargain...

The temple

Wedding pictures 

Ima, living in the hutong of Qianmen
with a few local residents

Meg and me!

Delicious Tibetan food.

Due to some unforeseen complications involving the stupidity of the English language, which uses confusing words like "Sunday" and "Monday" instead of the much easier Chinese system, Day 1, Day 2, etc., my mom and I stayed an extra day in Beijing. It ended up being for the best, because we used this day to go to the "Pearl" market, and to a super secret handbag place that an expat we met at Black Sesame told us about. We had to go over a bridge, through some alleyways, and into a scary looking warehouse, but we left with some very nice fake designer handbags, jewelry, shoes, and sunglasses. We thought it would be our easy, relaxing day off, but instead we were out for over 12 hours. Ooops!

I had a great time in Beijing. Like in Shanghai, we didn't get lost ONCE and I spoke Chinese to waiters, ticket takers, and random people on the street. I was worried that we would be overwhelmed in Beijing, but the geography is easy to understand and the metro is really convenient. I can't believe how much we did and how much we saw: Beijing took up a little under half of our four-city trip. Even though we did so much, I'm already planning my next trip there (with an important stop at the underground handbag place, of course...)

Bonus picture: My new boyfriend and me