(FINAL POST of 2011 Exchange) Last Stop Beijing

(Lizzy)

I can’t believe that five weeks have already gone by, but we have already said goodbye to Hangzhou. Our train arrived in Beijing early yesterday morning, and though it took more effort than usual to extract ourselves, and all our things, from the train car this time, we made it. After we eventually managed to then get all our things into our van, we were transported to our hotel.

After a breakfast surrounded by foreigners in the hotel, we left for the Temple of Heaven. We all enjoyed both the beautiful weather and the sights. The ancient area is both a tourist attraction and a spot for local people to come to exercise in the morning and socialize throughout the day. The lush parks were full of old Chinese men and women practicing Tai Chi, writing calligraphy on the cobblestones and playing mahjong. Dawn, who traveled alone to Beijing separately, also met up with us.

After leaving the temple, we braved the Beijing traffic and arrived at “cultural street,” a pedestrian street lined with small antique and other Chinese craft shops. After browsing for a while, we stopped for lunch at a vegetarian restaurant, which included quite a bit of fake meat. After enjoying a much-needed rest back at the hotel, we met back up again to go to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.

The size of the square, which is the largest public square in the world, is quite striking, as is the enormous painting of Chairman Mao above the entrance to the Forbidden City. Security is also very tight; we had to go through metal detectors to enter and the square is covered in surveillance cameras. Though the square itself is not much to see; it is mostly just concrete, it was interesting to see the People’s Congress, which is also the picture on one hundred Yuan note.

The Forbidden City, on the other hand, was full of things to see. Built in the early 1400’s, the city was sealed off to the public during the Ming and Qing Empires. The area includes over 8,000 rooms, all with specific and different functions. For example, the Emperor has one room in which to change his clothes before a meeting, and another in which to take a rest before a meeting. Each separate building is also ornately decorated in with bright colors and patterns, both inside and out. Today little remains inside the buildings to see, and most of the beauty of the Forbidden City is in its physical structure and landscaping. We also got a great view of the entire Forbidden City and much of Beijing itself from the top of a hill we climbed behind the park. We were all struck by Beijing’s lack of tall buildings; I pictured the capital of China to be much more modern and built-up. Though millions of people live here, it doesn’t seem anywhere near as modern as Shanghai did, with all its new buildings.

After leaving the Forbidden City we drove to a Chinese food street, where vendors were peddling everything from kidneys and beetles to whole birds and starfish. We all tried something, and while Chris stuck to fried ice-cream, the rest of us sampled scorpions. Colin and I also tried shark, which was very bony, and Colin even bought himself a snake on a stick, which he said was quite chewy. After these unorthodox appetizers we had a delicious dinner of Beijing duck, after we saw the whole bird cut open and its juices poured out.

We are all savoring our last adventures here in Beijing, and though we look forward to coming home, there always seems to be more to do and see here in China, and I know we will all miss it.