(Emily)ni men hao!
we got into beijing this morning. so many people! i've noticed that instead of bikes, people have converted to electric scooters. so chic! we did a quick drive by tiananmen square and mao's memorial (which is open now after years of being closed to the public). i wanted clarification that this was actually mao's final resting place so i asked our guide if this was a mausoleum. i was firmly corrected that it is not called a mausoleum, it is a memorial.
we got to our hotel....the taiwan hotel.... i know, i did a double take too. how ironic is it that we're staying at a hotel named after another country? although i guess the chinese still consider taiwan a part of the country. after breakfast we said our goodbyes to ric, who has been a surrogate father to us. we were all really sad and for the rest of the day we kept thinking we were missing someone. we miss you ric!
after dropping ric off, our guide da li (sp?) took us to the beijing planning exhibition hall. in short, it is a museum on the past, present, and future of beijing. da li was packed with an endless amount of information and while i learned a lot, i didn't find it to be the most interesting. i thought that the models on display were fully encased with glass, so i put my gloves where the glass top was supposed to be. well it wasn't fully enclosed and my gloves fell onto the display, falling into the crack between the glass and the edge of the display. fortunately, drew is tall and he was able to be my hero and rescue my glove from the depths of display. the coolest part of the museum for me was seeing the models for the olympic facilities. the swimming pool display had a very cool feature that, at the push of a button, split the building in half so that it looked like a grilled cheese. also in the museum was a map of the city of beijing, part of which had tiny scale models of the buildings. some of us wanted to be like calvin (of calvin and hobbes) and make like godzilla...however, we resisted that urge and to our knowledge, all the buildings are still intact.
after the museum we went to lunch at a szechuan restaurant. the restaurant was designed in a way so that the diners could see the chefs prepare their food through a glass window. very snazzy. the food was a little salty and we discovered that the mystery spice that we intensely dislike is the (now infamous) peppercorn. after getting sick right after eating a dish that had peppercorn in it a few days ago, cady will not go near the aforementioned spice (she said "it tastes like death"). the rest of us aren't crazy about it either (drew: "i hate it"). well, with the exception of terry, who really liked the spicy tofu dish that was prepared with a liberal dose peppercorn.
the highlight of the day was going to the lama monastery, which is the largest temple in beijing. awwwweeeessoooomeeee. it easily makes the top five places i've been to in china. at first we thought that there was only one shrine, but the back of each shrine opened up to another courtyard, with each shine more elaborate than the previous. the second and third to last shrines were absolutely stunning/beautiful/gorgeous/fantastic/interesting/breathtaking (everyone chipped in words). the second to last held the largest sandalwood carving in the world. carved out of a single piece of sandalwood is a statue of the buddha of the future, maitreya. it was about three stories high and some of the carving was even underground. it was gilt in gold and had elaborate jewels inlaid into the outfit of the buddha. the third to last had the figure of (what i think is) a boddhisattva. inside the shrine is also the seat where the dalai lama would sit if he wasn't in political exile. the seat still waits for him to come and teach the monks of the monastery.
for dinner we decided to move the peiking duck dinner to tomorrow because we were still feeling full and were a little tired. instead, we went to the supermarket and picked up snacks (i.e. jiffy, seedless strawberry jam, chips ahoy cookies, da bai tu, ritz, and dorritos) as well as stopped by mcdonald's for some fries and cheeseburgers....i just realized that in my last post i talked about kendoji. my days seem to fall on the days when we feel the most in the mood for american food.
a side note: most everyone here thinks i'm chinese. when i go into stores all the sales associates flock to me, thinking i can help them translate for the rest of team china. i find this really interesting because in america i'm sometimes stereotypically mistaken for being chinese because i just look asian. in china, the chinese think i'm chinese. the tour guides usually have waited a couple of days until their curiosity gets the better of them and they finally ask me if i'm chinese-american. i thought that everyone would be able to tell that i'm not chinese, but i guess i look more chinese than korean.
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