(Alex)Hello America, for the last time in China you will hear from me.
We arrived in Beijing this morning at 6:35 am. The train ride was very nice despite the insane amounts of luggage we all had. I am actually quite surprised we got off the train so easily and quickly, but all went smoothly from transferring to the hotel. We all had trouble letting go of our friends and families and Hangzhou, but it is nice to be travelling one last time before we return to America! At this point we are all craving some good old fashioned American food whether it be cheese or a nice diner burger. The food here has been great (I will get to more of this in a little bit), but I can't wait to have some teryaki turkey and apple pie (mom that's a request please).
After a short rest at our hotel, we headed straight to Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City! It was so amazing to to finally be here and the sights were great. The Square and the city were packed, but we managed and had a great time seeing one of the most popular areas of all China. Sandy revealed that ten years ago, there were no street barriers blocking off the Square and that the Forbidden City was far less crowded. As the pictures were taken and the thousands of tourist groups pushed and shoved everywhere, I kept thinking of the recent history that took place in this area. The movie "The Last Emperor" was in my head whilst seeing the throne room. The eerie ending to that movie was classic and the story of Emperor Pu Yi is a truly sad one. Also the 1949 address from Chairman Mao that stated the founding of the People's Republic of China popped into our minds, and after seeing much of China, I can see how far his word really spread. We continued touring through the CIty and ended up seeing a few jade and stone sculptures from the Qing and Ming dynasty. The back of the city holds a small garden with a nice area to relax where the emperor did so hundreds of years ago. After reaching the end of our tour there, we went to lunch nearby at a restaurant famous for Peking Duck.
Having lunch together with just the five of us again was nice because there was no pressure to eat too much or something that didn't look too appetizing. We had an assortment of beef, spicy chicken, sweet salad, and eggplant. We ate for a solid hour and then took a one hour drive to the Summer Palace. This place is famous for having one of the longest corridors in the world, nearly one kilometer long. Also it sits on a beautiful lake, that has a surprisingly rough tide for a lake! The trees and buildings were all magnificent and beautiful, but compared to the mass and size of the Tiananmen Government buildings, these stood no chance whatsoever. The Summer Palace was quite busy as well, but it still was a great place to visit and take in the Chinese sites and history.
At this point, we had had our share of sightseeing and headed back for dinner. We ended up going on our own to a Haagen Dazs for some ice cream because we weren't too hungry for our Peking Duck dinner. When we ended up having our dinner, we barely touched it! In Hangzhou, we could not have gotten away with this. The people there would have found some way to get us to eat it, but here we said no, and we were proud! We saved room for the crazy and exotic food stands outside and this is when the fun started. Sandy thought it would be a cool idea to have the Shanghai Five take a star fish and each take a piece of one of the five legs. It made for an interesting picture nonetheless, but I was very reluctant to try it. As you well know by now, I am not a crazy eater, but what I did next, I thought would never happen in this life or the next. Everybody wanted to try Scorpion and I had no choice to do so as well....I was not a happy camper, but after seeing all the girls enjoy the scorpion so much and go for seconds, I had to try one. I never ate something so fast in my life, but holy moly was I feeling gross. Cassie especially loved it and Sandy took a bite and her expression changed from scared to a "wow this tastes like chicken!" face. It was a fun day and right now Cassie and I are in some sketchy Chinese internet bar that we scoped out. Everything ( I mean everything) is in Chinese and it is very very hot in here so, I bid you all a farewell and We will be home in 3 days so be prepared you all! We trek to the Great Wall tomorrow so expect an awesome blog from Alaina and check back soon.
Zaijian. Women Dou Xiangnian Nimen He Women Qu Dao Meiguo Zai Yi Xia
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