Kui's Blog #3: So what else is there in Beijing to do???
Og Blog #3: So what else is there in Beijing to do???
Well, the second half of my week was just as busy as the first week and a half of my trip. On Wednesday and Thursday, I met with students of Beihang University after my classes. My students were Mac and Betty, and they showed me all the school’s cafeterias, their 5-story library, and a bunch of shopping malls. The shopping mall we went to was about a 20-30 minute walk from the school. There were six levels, and all the shops were very expensive. I didn’t buy anything there but a Mickey Mouse shirt that was on sale. Apparently, Mickey Mouse is very popular in China among the high school and college students.
Friday was a fieldtrip to the Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City. This place is huge and very crowded with a bunch of tour groups lurking all over these two places. In the middle of Tiananmen Square is where Mao Zedong’s body is located, where it is exposed for the public to look at. It is really gross because the body is decomposing inside of a glass case where it is a very ugly yellow color. To get into the Forbidden City, you had to go through a few gates and security checks. We bought our tickets, and entered under another gate/pagoda. In the few hours that you’re there, all you see are pagodas and the different halls that were built during the different dynasties. Honestly, this goes on forever and ever and ever. This palace is huge, and my feet got really tired from walking all over it. After today’s fieldtrip, I got sick of seeing pagodas every where we went because they started to all look the same.
Saturday was just as crazy again for me. Some of our study abroad group and I went back to the Beijing Zoo to look at the animals that we did not get to see. Lucky us, we also found a small ‘amusement’ park hidden on the left side of the zoo. Yes, we all played bumper cars in the Beijing Zoo in China! It was awesome, and empty…so while a few of us were trying to be ‘no-so-good’ drivers, others were taking pictures of how much fun we were having bumping the other cars. We then moved on to see the rest of the animals, and found another treat for us to try. A few of the students decided to go boating on the river in the middle of the zoo. The boat driver swerved back and forth with my friends inside, creating a series of waves and causing the boat to rock heavily back and forth. After that, everyone has to see the most famous animal in the Beijing Zoo: the Panda.
Well, our day didn’t end there. We bought tickets to see the acrobatic show that evening. We all dressed up in formal attire, and caught a taxi to downtown Beijing. These acrobats are amazing! The acrobats are between ages 7 to 15 years, and are very strong, flexible, and extremely talented. At one point, they stacked about 5 boys on top of each other; the bottom acrobat was standing up with the next person sitting on his shoulders. The 5th boy at the top was standing up. When it was time for them to come down, it was really scary. You could see the whole line lean like the Tower of Pisa. They broke off from each other as soon as they were near to the ground and they all just rolled over and got up like it was nothing.
After the acrobatic show, we all decided to head to Outback Steak House, to see if their food taste like it would in America. Since we’ve been eating everywhere with chopsticks, we asked if we could use chopsticks for dinner, and the waitress shook her head and laughed at us. Their steak was really good, along with the rest of the food. We head back to the hotel to change our clothes and to discover the night life. We went to a club about 15 minutes away, and discovered a bunch of Purdue students who were also in Beijing studying for a few weeks. I guess this was a popular place for international students.
Sunday, I slept in, finished my homework, and packed up for my first train ride on Monday. 12 hour train ride…here I come!