Beijing Day 4 and Off to Hangzhou

Iona

The Sisterhood met Kelley downstairs with their bags and belongings at 8:30 am and set out for another day in Beijing! We would later be boarding an overnight train that would take us to Hangzhou- and the second leg of this trip- but for the majority of the day, we would be spending it in Beijing.

Our first stop was the Olympic Village, the arenas and space that was built for hosting the 2008 Olympic Games! It was really quite a site to see given and extremely impressive to see how the government had managed to build such an impressive layout given the already heavily populated and developed city. We learned that those who had been living in that area were given a substantial amount of compensation for cooperating and also would be relocated on the government’s dime. After the initial grandness of the entire place wore off, we found ourselves asking how does the government maintain usage of these facilities? Tremendous work beginning in 2002 had gone into modelling and building this area, but was it still used? Kelley informed us that the swimming pool was still used for competitions, and the Birds Nest received publicity as it is a very impressive stadium; yet the Village’s primary function was still to serve as a tourist site. Kelbs, Liz, and I soon fell into conversation about the value of hosting the Olympic Games and how many benefits (beyond the publicity) does it bring to the nation. Was it really worth it or not..?

After this visit, we took a short car ride to 798, which is an art district in the Northeast of Beijing. It was during this car ride that I unfortunately felt very ill so I decided to park myself at a coffee shop and rest for a little bit. The rest of the group, however, went to explore the streets of the interesting art district and came back with some purchases ;). There were tons of shops, art exhibitions, and boutiques along the streets with graffiti art on the walls- very interesting! After an hour of browsing/ sitting and drinking warm water, the group went to have some lunch and I joined them at the tail end of their meal. We hung out in the local restaurant for a good amount of time until 2:30pm where we left to meet the van that would take us 40 min to the train station where we would be sent off to Hangzhou!

The train ride consisted of reading books, playing chess, and having talks :). We kept ourselves entertained until around 10pm and then lights were out and we were off!