We woke up around 7:30 to some announcement in Chinese blaring in our ears that Bryan and I managed to catch said that we were supposed to arrive at 8:56 am. I attempted to go back to sleep for a little while and then we all got up and got our stuff together. Once we got off the train we took a bathroom break and then got 2 cabs to our hostel. It was in some alley, which made it kind of hard to find, but after a little wandering we found it and checked in. We were supposed to have two 4-person mixed dorms, but apparently they were out so they gave us one 4-person mixed dorm, one 2-person private room, and put the other two people in a random 4-person mixed dorm. Jess and I got the private room, which worked out really well. After we put all of our stuff down we started right into our site seeing with the Forbidden City.
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| Hostel room |
We walked there and on the way stopped so that Bryan, Jess, and John could buy masks although the rest of us decided to pass for the time being. The Forbidden City and Tian’anmen Square are right next to each other but we decided to go to the Forbidden City first since it closed first. There wasn’t necessarily all that much to do once you were inside other than walk from one end to the other and just appreciate how big it is and all of the cool architecture.
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| Total Asian submersion |
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| The Forbidden City |
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| The Group |
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| Big Stone |
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| The Guardians |
There were a ton of different halls with shrines that were all really pretty and some cool statues. We also found a few cool exhibits along the way including the 9 Dragon Screen and the Hall of Clocks, which were both pretty sweet.
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| Clocks |
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| 9 Dragon Screen |
At the other end we got to walk through the Imperial Garden that had some pretty cool rock structures and Nathan’s discovery of the lion dog, also known as the “log.” After we had seen enough, we exited only to realize that we had to get all the way back to where we started to see Tian’anmen Square. We debated catching a bus but then just ended up walking so we could find something for lunch on the way. We ended up just picking out a random restaurant that looked pretty decent and it turned out to be great. Nathan and I split some sweet and sour pork, three delicacies, and fried rice, all of which were extremely good.
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| Imperial Garden |
After we were all full we made it the rest of the way over to Tian’anmen Square. We stopped and got some good pictures with the giant portrait of Mao and then made our way across the street via a tunnel to the actual Square.
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| Me and my main man Mao |
We walked around the square for a little while just to check it out and made our way around to the Monument to the People’s Heroes and Mao’s Mausoleum. We had to ask about 3 different people to get a decent group picture and then we were ready to head out.
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| Mao's Mausoleum |
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| Monument to the People's Heroes |
Bryan, Nathan, and I weren’t really ready to just go back to the hostel so we decided we would go on an adventure to find the Beijing Ducks stadium and the Stephon Marbury statue that is out front. After a long subway ride and the most round about route to the MasterCard Center, we weren’t even allowed to get past the gate. Nathan tried to bribe the guard with some money but the guy wasn’t having it so we just had to appreciate the statue from afar.
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| Marbury from afar |
After getting as close of a look as we were going to get, we decided to head back to the hostel. As soon as we got back we decided to book a tour of The Great Wall through the hostel, solely for convenience purposes. With that, we all took advantage of our free beer coupons and then Nathan, Tyler, Bryan, John and I got a recommendation from the front desk of a good place to eat. We didn’t realize it was going to be as long of a walk as it was, but after playing match the characters we eventually found it. The pictures were a little misleading so we didn’t wind up with exactly what we wanted but everything turned out to be okay but the green beans and dumplings were definitely the best.
After taking forever to flag down the waiter to get our check, we headed back to the hostel to find everyone hanging out with this other group of people from the states. We all introduced ourselves and spent a while talking with them and drinking a few beers. Apparently this girl tried to come on to Jess, which was really funny and this other guy met Bryan and then gave him a kiss on the cheek goodbye. Jess and I had thought he was gay all night but then he apparently asked if we were single so we don’t really know about that one. By the end of the night he was super drunk and was making zero sense. We were talking and he was obviously from England because of his accent and so he asked what my heritage was. I told him a was ¾ Italian and his response, I kid you not, was “So do you really channel that when you are writing?” I was so confused and didn’t even know how to respond so I just kind of blew it off by saying that I’m an engineer so I don’t really write. Then he got really concerned and thought he offended me in some way and kept asking if that was a rude question, which only made the whole situation even more awkward. Luckily I got saved by the bell since the bar closed at 11 and we said our goodbyes. Our group all went back into one of the rooms to hang out and Jess decided to go with the group of Americans to the bars. After not too much longer we all called it a night since we had to be up early to make it to The Wall.
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