(HINT! scroll down to part 1 and read from there. if you start here you'll be in the middle of the story and all confused and crap. these are really long entries, i'm warning you now, and i hardly even broke'em up with subheads or anything. i'm a cruel writer, i know.)
we got into beijing around 6:30 am, so we were suuuuuper tired. we checked into our hotel—probably the last non-hostel i’d see for six months—and took naps. after we woke up, we suited up appropriately for the cold (i wore my brand new northface jacket every day, and i LOVED it). it was misty, gray, freezing, and i’d missed this weather.
we were walking in front of this big mall when a couple girls came up to us and started talking. they were real sweet. they told us they were college art students, so then we started talking about college, about america, about thailand, blah blah blah. real nice girls. at the end of the conversation, they were like, “hey, we’re having this art show...do you guys wanna come?” well, why not? they took us off the main street into this building, down the elevator, and into a room with lots of paintings. they told us stories about all of’em—what the fish mean, what the tiger means, what the four seasons mean, etc. it was real interesting. finally, we were like “ok, it’s time to go.”
“which one do you like?” the one girl asked.
“ohhhh gosh...maybe the tiger? i don’t know, they’re all really pretty.”
“well, do you want to buy it?”
“oh, no thank you! thanks for this though, it was really fun! bye!”
“but which one do you like? my art has never been abroad! would you like one? which one do you choose?”
this girl would not let up. she was desperately trying to sell us the painting. i smelled something fishy when she wouldn’t let us say no, then on the way out another couple people tried to sell us a tour of the great wall. we came out and we were all like “man, that was kinda weird, wasn’t it?”
later that night, pops wasn’t feeling so well, so mom and i went downstairs to ask the concierge if there was a good soup place around. “just soup?” he asked, paired with a set of pretty fierce confused eyebrows. soup or maybe noodles, we said. “oohhhh, noodles. there’s a place down the street that’s famous.” he pointed it out and off we went.
a guy greeted us outside and on the way in, goes, “where are you from? new york?” no, california. so he led us not to the first dining room, but the second. because we’re from california?
we sat down at a table we couldn’t fit our legs under (the space between the seat of the chair and the table was fit for a baby) and the woman shoved us a menu. we looked at it for maybe three minutes when she came back over and just sort of pointed at what she liked. “no, no, i think we’ll get this noodle soup and this egg soup.” “okay okay okay” she said with no drop of friendliness.
despite the bizarre vibes we were getting from the place, the dinner was delicious—and huge. we didn’t come close to finishing it, so we asked the waitress to bag it up. she wasn’t happy about it—shocking—but hooked us up anyway. on the way out, the same guy who’d asked us where we were from was like “hey, it’s our anniversary, we have a gift for you upstairs, follow me.” we followed him up a set of steps to a ROOM OF PAINTINGS. they looked exactly like the ones the girls had shown us. “uh, no thanks, we’re going to bed, bye.”
never trust anyone who tries to sell you a painting in beijing.
the next day was big: MAO DAY. mao tze dong (i’m completely not spelling that right), former leader of communist china, was embalmed upon death and now lies in a memorial hall at the end of tianamen square. there are rumors that it’s not actually him, but a wax copy, but either way that’s still EFFING COOL so we had to go see it. after a mini fiasco at the entry gate—NO CAMERAS, MOM GO AWAY, the guard said with her actions—dad and i walked through to see mao. then i took all the stuff from mom and she and dad went through together.
i’ve had a lot of time to think about it now, and i think mao is a wax replica. i hope this sentence doesn’t get me in trouble with the government.
ok, i gotta hurry this business up here cuz i’m doting and rambling. we saw tianamen square and the forbidden city after that, both which were beautiful in their sheer vastness. about a thousand more people tried to sell us things—“lady, you been to great wall yet?” “badalingggg!” “mao watch! you want mao watch!” (these watches were actually pretty cool.)
after another hotel nap, we went to our fancy peking duck dinner. actually, we had drinks and played games first, but i don’t think i even need to say that because we did this almost every single night and it was awesome and i miss it. anyway, we were in our jeans and sneakers and t-shirts and were slightly underdressed for this fa-aaaa-ncy place. honestly, i think they just did it up for the tourists and i get really bothered when places like that treat you bad cuz you’re not dressed exactly for their place. my money (lol my parents’ money, whatever) works just as well as that hoity toity guy’s money. aaaanyway, we got the sweetest waitress who helped us figure out how to eat this delicious peking duck and not look like tards. but we were sort of off in the corner, away from other people, and it was getting late and most of the other people had left anyway, so we ended up just eating it however we could (i.e. with fingers).
the next day we headed out to the great wall. we’d arranged for a car to take us cuz it’s real far away from the city, and we went to the maitayu (this is TOTALLY not how you spell it) section. it was spectacular. and steep. very, very steep. awesome day.
we’d read about the red capital club in our guidebook and decided to check it out for some drinks later that night. it was a place owned by an american guy (i think) who decked it out in communist stuff and was a throwback to the red capitals (the guys who were capitalists during the strictly communist regime). they’d done it up perfectly, down to the servers who wore communist outfits. pops and i tied at five crowns that night, but i probably should’ve pwnd him cuz i’m the best.
the next day...gosh...i think that was the day mom and i went to beihai park? yeah, we went for an early morning walk in the park. exploring parks is one of my favorite thing about big cities.
when we came back, we took a rest in the hotel then the three of us headed out to olympic park. HUGE. the bird’s nest looked just like a regular stadium from the inside, but i had a really good time just sitting there and thinking about all the big olympic stuff that had happened there. usain bolt ran really fast RIGHT THERE. pretty awesome. unfortunately the cube was closed (big sadface), so we settled for the souvenir shop next door.
the next morning we went to temple of heaven park, which was my favorite park in the city. tons of people—mostly old, retired-type folks—went there to do their adult hobbies: card games, playing instruments, dancing tai chi, etc. i can’t wait to get old and have adult hobbies.
we went to the airport, played one last game of five crowns (i don’t even remember who won), i cried when mom and dad left, and the trip was over. it was weird to go from hanging out with them all the time to not seeing them at all, and i had a really hard time especially knowing i wouldn’t see them in person again until october/november—six or seven months away. mehhhh i miss home.
but it was a great trip and i was really pumped they got to come and see this crazy little traveling side of my life. i love’em and i miss’em a lot.
oh, you. you think this is the end of my trip, right? FALSE. mom and dad left beijing on april 3 (ipad day), but i stayed until the 7th. this is when i really figured out the city and fell in love with beijing.
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