I've got a LOT to catch up on.
Monday we went to the Temple of Heaven in the middle of Beijing, and then we went to the Great Wall!
The Temple of Heaven was pretty, but what was more interesting was all the cool things going on in the park area surrounding it. There were women dancing with ribbons, some dancing with partners, people doing Tai Chi, and others playing instruments and singing traditional songs. Here are some photos from Temple of Heaven:
The Great Wall just felt unreal. It was really amazing standing on this enormous thing I've heard about my entire life. We went to the Mutianyu section of the wall, which I've been told has fewer tourists and isn't as crowded. Since the wall is more than 5,000 miles long, I didn't see very much of it. In fact, I learned that only about 1/3 of the original wall is still standing.
For the record, I put together this fantastic Soundslide show with detailed captions and a walk through of the whole trip. But I've discovered that Blogger is more trouble than it's worth sometimes, and it won't let me post the slide show. I'll have to share it with everyone when I get home.
There were mountains in every direction, for as far as I could see.
The UNC copy editing interns from left to right, Dan Byrnes, me and Brian Conlin, stand on top of a watch tower of the Great Wall of China.
You often hear about how great a place is, and the hype leading up to it makes you expect a lot more than you actually get. In no way was the Great Wall like this. It was everything I expected and more. I learned that my deskmate Fiona has never been to the wall. I can't imagine living so near to something so great and never going. I think if I lived here I would go every year, since there's so much to explore, and so many different portions of the wall to see.
Monday was a great day, indeed.
There were mountains in every direction, for as far as I could see.
The UNC copy editing interns from left to right, Dan Byrnes, me and Brian Conlin, stand on top of a watch tower of the Great Wall of China.
You often hear about how great a place is, and the hype leading up to it makes you expect a lot more than you actually get. In no way was the Great Wall like this. It was everything I expected and more. I learned that my deskmate Fiona has never been to the wall. I can't imagine living so near to something so great and never going. I think if I lived here I would go every year, since there's so much to explore, and so many different portions of the wall to see.
Monday was a great day, indeed.
Tuesday I met Debbie, Steven's mom, and we decided to visit the Olympic Park. It was pretty hazy out, so even though it was very bright outside, and I almost got sunburned, the photos look dull and gray. It was kind of cool knowing that the Olympics happened there two years ago, but we were really just looking at 4 buildings for a few hours, so it wasn't that wonderful. I did enjoy Debbie's company; we chatted for quite a while, and she shared some of her knowledge of China. She's been coming here for several years as part of her job recruiting and maintaining connections with Chinese foreign exchange students for Troy University in Alabama, and she's been all over the country, so she really knows what she's doing.
After Debbie went back to her hotel, I met up with Tim Gubitz, who also happens to be in China. He's leaving today (Friday), but I haven't seen him since high school, so I think it's pretty amazing that even though N.C. State and UNC are only about 30 minutes apart and we never visited, we met up on the other side of the world.
After Debbie went back to her hotel, I met up with Tim Gubitz, who also happens to be in China. He's leaving today (Friday), but I haven't seen him since high school, so I think it's pretty amazing that even though N.C. State and UNC are only about 30 minutes apart and we never visited, we met up on the other side of the world. We went back to that market street where we ate dinner last week. This time we ate outside and had kabobs cooked on the grill. It was delicious. I had chicken (I think) and eggplant, and I tried some of Tim's squid. It started raining in the middle of dinner, so one of the cooks brought us a big umbrella, which just made the dinner that much cooler. There aren't many outdoor restaurants in the U.S., or at least not that I've seen. I like it a lot.
Sitting under the umbrella at dinner, from left to right, me, Dan Byrnes, Annie Gray and Tim Gubitz share a plate of edamame.
Wednesday was the last day of our three-day break. Annie, Dan, Brian and I ventured to the middle of Beijing, which is where the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square are. We went to Tiananmen Square, but Annie told us it would take a long time to venture through the Forbidden City, so we'll get to that later.
As it turns out, Tiananmen Square is just a big open cement area with lots of tourists and not much else. There is a monument to the People's Heroes, which is the tall statue in the background of the photo above.
Just across the street from Tiananmen Square is the entrance to the Forbidden City, which I am standing in front of here.
We left the square and walked south to Qianmen (the Qi is pronounced chi) Street, which is a market street. The main road had many modern stores, including Starbucks, which you can see in this photo.
But of course, we didn't come to China to go to American stores, so we ventured to the street parallel to that, which was a much more traditional market street. There's not much you can't buy on a street like this. Clothing, furniture, food, jewelry, remote-controlled cars, pipes and art are just some of the things I can come up with off the top of my head.
In the middle of the tradition, there are also some foreign influences, like this restaurant attached to a hostel on that same street. Sakura has burgers, Italian pastas, sandwiches and salads, and almost anything else you might expect to find in a Western cafe. It was so fantastic to have American food. I ate mac & cheese, which I think was made with a goat cheese. Yum yum yum.
The atmosphere at Sakura was pretty cool, too. It had a kind of rustic international safari feel to it.
I'd been hearing about the "night market" off of Wangfujing Street since I arrived, so I really wanted to check it out.
Yep. Scorpion. Past interns, as well as Beijing travel books and videos, talk about the market and the unique foods available there. I'd been hearing about these scorpions so much, that I thought it would be a waste for me to be there and not try it.
Of course, not before taking off the stinger. Brian just ate it, but for some reason it made me feel better knowing it wasn't going to sting me.
Oh yeah. I did it.
Yep. I ate scorpion. It actually wasn't bad at all. Really crispy and crunchy, and it sort of tasted like a potato chip. The worst part was that I had some flakes stuck in my teeth later.
Sitting under the umbrella at dinner, from left to right, me, Dan Byrnes, Annie Gray and Tim Gubitz share a plate of edamame. Wednesday was the last day of our three-day break. Annie, Dan, Brian and I ventured to the middle of Beijing, which is where the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square are. We went to Tiananmen Square, but Annie told us it would take a long time to venture through the Forbidden City, so we'll get to that later.
As it turns out, Tiananmen Square is just a big open cement area with lots of tourists and not much else. There is a monument to the People's Heroes, which is the tall statue in the background of the photo above.
Just across the street from Tiananmen Square is the entrance to the Forbidden City, which I am standing in front of here.
We left the square and walked south to Qianmen (the Qi is pronounced chi) Street, which is a market street. The main road had many modern stores, including Starbucks, which you can see in this photo.
But of course, we didn't come to China to go to American stores, so we ventured to the street parallel to that, which was a much more traditional market street. There's not much you can't buy on a street like this. Clothing, furniture, food, jewelry, remote-controlled cars, pipes and art are just some of the things I can come up with off the top of my head.
In the middle of the tradition, there are also some foreign influences, like this restaurant attached to a hostel on that same street. Sakura has burgers, Italian pastas, sandwiches and salads, and almost anything else you might expect to find in a Western cafe. It was so fantastic to have American food. I ate mac & cheese, which I think was made with a goat cheese. Yum yum yum.
The atmosphere at Sakura was pretty cool, too. It had a kind of rustic international safari feel to it.After lunch, which was at about 4 p.m., we continued down the road and then over to a different part of town. Wangfujing Street is a sort of Times Square of Beijing. There were bright lights and billboards everywhere, and the street was filled with stores like Rolex, Gucci, and of course KFC.
I'd been hearing about the "night market" off of Wangfujing Street since I arrived, so I really wanted to check it out.
It doesn't look much different from the other market streets we've visited, except that the night market has a few new surprises.
Yep. Scorpion. Past interns, as well as Beijing travel books and videos, talk about the market and the unique foods available there. I'd been hearing about these scorpions so much, that I thought it would be a waste for me to be there and not try it.
Of course, not before taking off the stinger. Brian just ate it, but for some reason it made me feel better knowing it wasn't going to sting me.
Oh yeah. I did it.
Yep. I ate scorpion. It actually wasn't bad at all. Really crispy and crunchy, and it sort of tasted like a potato chip. The worst part was that I had some flakes stuck in my teeth later. So there's really nothing else I can add to this blog to top the Great Wall and eating scorpion. In fact, this could be the end of the blog, since I can't imagine doing anything else in China more awesome. (Just kidding!)
Thursday was back to work, but of course that didn't mean much since the holiday seems to have severely decreased the amount of news going on in China. I edited two stories yesterday, one of which was a review of Jet Li's new Chinese movie Ocean Heaven and the other was a profile of a tourist spot in southeast China. The profile was odd. I presume it was similar to the New York Times information pages, because there was no byline on the story, which was intentional, and there was no news angle. It sounded like it belonged in a brochure for a travel agency, not on an news website. Actually, after further investigation, I realized that our website actually has a travel section, with ways to plan your trip to China. This seems to support the idea that our publication is more like national public relations for China, rather than a news site.
I have offically been given absolutely no work today at all, even though I've asked for stories to edit multiple times. Fiona asked me to help her edit the commentary for a video she's making, but that is all I have done. I'm not sure what to do when the company that's paying me to edit things tells me there's nothing to edit.
I have decided to keep a Google Map of the places I've been in China, so the folks back home can get some sense of where I'm going.
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