Beijing Hotels
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Lots of walking...
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After a breakfast meeting to hand off the phones, I go off to explore the city. The Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square are only a short subway ride away from the Wanfujing station, so I cram in with the morning commuters to people watch on my way there. I wanted to go to the Chinese National Museum, which is also right there, but it is closed for extensive remodeling and will not reopen until 2010. There is a park near the museum though, and that is where I stopped to record some thoughts about the day.
It is so strange to be in a situation where I am so obviously a foreigner; so different that people openly stare at me and shout "hello" or "English" just to get me to respond. And college and teenage girls stop me to practice their English and ask me to pose for pictures with them (I did this with two different groups; a family with their teenage daughter, and a group of eight girls, each who wanted to pose with me separately!). As one of them said to me: "a real live foreigner." Wow.
Oh, and everyone who can speak English also asks me if I'm cold because I'm wearing short sleeves. It's in the mid-fifties I think, and Madison has had such a brutal winter with record breaking snows and super cold and a late Spring that this feels delightful by comparison. It is gray and overcast, but I'm walking everywhere, so I'm keeping a comfortable temperature. But after the fourth person asks me this I look around and cannot see another single person in my vicinity that is in short sleeves. It's all relative.
But it is definitely Spring here... lots of small trees are in bloom. I took pictures of some in the Forbidden City gardens because I was enjoying their fragrances, and for my sister the gardener to see too. :)
I was there all morning (It's enormous!) taking pictures of sculptures and carvings and 15th century paving stones. Then in the process of getting a couple little souvenirs I met an artist from outer Mongolia, Banying, a painter selling her work and enjoyed talking with her for a while, showing her my necklace I was wearing that I had made, etc.
Walking from the Forbidden City over to Tiananmen Square (which is so immense it is hard to picture full of people) I had two twenty-something girls from Wuhan, Lili and Xiaoqing, strike up a conversation with me. At first I was skeptical of their intentions, but the longer we talked the more I enjoyed their company.
I ended up going to a tea house with them and talking, letting them "practice their English" and they tried to teach me some Chinese. We talked about their city, mine, travel, wanting to volunteer for the Olympics, just enjoyed chatting for about an hour and a half. They suggested some places for me to visit, which I didn't end up getting to, but I am supposed to come back to China in the fall I think, so now I have an agenda for then.
And then the public park, where I sat down to write all of this. Willow trees and benches and flowering trees I can't name. The cultural sites I visited today are so old, and yet most of the city I have seen is so modern.
Where we had tea was an older area, less touristy, more bustling with what looked like average people. I mean, the Forbidden City was crowded with more Chinese tourists than anything else, but they were there like me to see something special. I did people watch on my walk back from the tea house quite a bit, and I ended up walking all the way back to the hotel rather than take the subway. It is really close, and I was feeling like stretching my legs still after the long flight the day before.
When I figured out my friend couldn't come meet me to go to the silk market after all, I decided to tuck in for the night. I went down to the mall below my hotel (avoiding the KFC, DQ and Starbucks) and bought random things from the grocery store in there. Deli counter oddities, pastries (which apparently are very popular here), fruit, and had a little picnic in my hotel room before going to sleep.
On the way back from purchasing these things, I did stop in the mall to see a little fashion show and marvel at a crowd listening to an Italian designer get translated into Chinese. Bizarre day. I keep having to pinch myself and say out loud where I am, lest I forget or take it for granted.
Latest Comments (2)
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Love the flowering tree pics! (reply)
Apr 17, 2008 19:12 EST by rebeccapcohen
I love seeing a star magnolia in China, which was blooming a month ago in France and is just holding on its flowers here. Thanks for thinking of me; keep them coming!
Love, Rebecca
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Thank you for the flowering tree pics (reply)
Apr 17, 2008 19:05 EST by rebeccapcohen
How awesome to see a star magnolia in China, which was flowering in France last month when I was there, and just holding on to its blooms here in D.C. Oh, I can't wait to see gardens around the world! Keep taking pics for me! Love it.
Rebecca
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