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Hi all,

I was in Beijing this morning! But now I’m back in Hangzhou on Julia’s computer. This will be condensed and I will probably be leaving a few things out, but I’ll do my best to summarize the trip. I apologize if I offend anyone with my commentary.

-Hangzhou has a new airport. It’s really nice and cool looking and it’s supposed to be an international airport in a few years or so!
-Met up with the tour group in the airport. There were a few Chinese Americans in the group, but all spoke Chinese (which is not surprising considering it was a Chinese-speaking tour group), in addition to English
-We flew on Hunan Airlines, which has a very Chinese feel to it. The seats were all red and had Chinese designs on them in gold. Each seat had its own touch screen TV, which I used to play Bejeweled on the way there for the first time and watched most of the Simpsons movie on the way back (flight ended before it finished). The piloting seemed a little risky though. The landings were shaky and kind of hard =/
-First day in Beijing, we pretty much just slept. We were tired from travel and the flight had been delayed, so we got into the hotel around 1am.
-The Hotel was the “National Jade Hotel.” Supposedly, it was a 4-star hotel. I don’t know what it once was, but it was much lower in my opinion upon arrival. Here’s why: 1. Smoking allowed. Everywhere. The lobby smelled horrible, as did my room the first day or so. 2. Rust present in the bathtub. 3. burnt-out lightbulb in a lamp and all of the lampshades were damaged. 4. Minifridge was neither cold (it was room-temperature) nor large (you could probably fit 3 standard water bottles in it). 5. The door did not close properly. My door wouldn’t close without slamming, and Julia/Lillian’s door would sometimes close without locking. 6. TV remote basically didn’t work (only if you pushed a bunch of times really hard). 7. Shower head didn’t work. 8. Bed was hard as a rock (apparently cultural?) Other than those things, the hotel wasn’t bad, and I got used to it. Food tasted pretty good at breakfast and there was nice furniture/rocks in the lobby.
-Beijing is very similar to Irvine in temperature, but drier, dustier, more CO2-filled, and worse allergens for me. The traffic system is far better than Hangzhou due to Law Enforcement actually using that “E”-word there, but still a ways from the US. The duck there is good (it is famous haha). I would not recommend Beijing for people with asthma. It would not be pleasant. The ancient Chinese buildings often have copied styles in modern buildings, so you often can’t tell if a building is 5 years old or 500, but it doesn’t matter too much. The city also has some cool architecture

-Itinerary/what we did:
Day 1: Plane, check in, and sleep

Day 2: Shopping district near Tiananmen Square, Mao’s tomb, Tiananmen Square itself (which, if you ask me, is not the largest square in the world as it is advertised to be), and about 1/2 of the forbidden city. Ate lunch at an okay restaurant with the tour group. We ate dinner with Will (mostly duck) and got drinks at a jazz club. They were non-alcoholic for Will and I. Very cool.

Day 3: Climbed the Great Wall and went to the temple of heaven. Stopped at a “farmer’s” restaurant. A bunch of the people in the tour group REALLY hated the food and were angry at the tour guide; so much so that they walked out on the meal. It made Julia really angry and caused some tension in our little group too because Lillian wasn’t eating due to a stomach ache, and I wasn’t because it didn’t seem very sanitary. We ate dinner with Will again that night (Duck) and I had alcohol for the first time. It was sake. And also kind of gross. Not a drinker, nor will I be from what I can tell. On this day, I was really happy to have Will around because I was getting really stressed out. Having only 2 people to talk to in your language is really depressing when you can hear them talking to each other or other people and know they are talking about other things and not telling you. Even with Julia and Lillian translating, things VERY CLEARLY were left out from what the tour guide was saying. I was VERY seriously considering leaving China 2 weeks early to go home because I was not enjoying myself and know that I could in more favorable circumstances. Never again do I plan on going on a tour with a language that I don’t speak. Hopefully the one in 2 days in Xian will be better. We’ll wait and see.

Day 4: Break day (because of the stress mentioned for day 3). Lillian, Julia, and I ate lunch at Pizza hut, which is more like a CPK in China than the US version of Pizza hut. Then Lillian and I let Julia sleep at the hotel. I went shopping with Will and Lillian at a fake-ish department store. Bought a fake Burberry shirt and an Omega watch. I hope the watch lasts… Also went to a rock wholesale store (Will likes rocks). Lillian bought some jade and I bought a crystal bracelet for around $40 US. Will thinks is worth over $100! Yay! Then we went to Will’s grandparents’ apartment where Will is staying. Then we went to get Julia at the hotel. We had hot pot for dinner, followed by McDonald’s Ice Cream. We walked from McD’s to the hotel, where I quickly fell asleep because I had taken 2 benadryl XD

Day 5: Went to a 500-yr old house of a governor, then to a garden behind the forbidden city. Climbed a hill there.  Ate lunch at the same place as lunch on day 2 of the tour. Went to the airport to return to Hangzhou. Ate dinner at Julia’s and Typed this

Also somewhere in there (I think Day 4, but it might have been day 5), we checked out the 2008 Beijing Olympic complex at night. The water cube and bird’s nest were pretty cool, as was a random olympic tower-thing that was there. Plans for tomorrow are to relax.

ANYWAY, like I said, I didn’t like the tour or the hotel. I seriously think Beijing is a fairly tourist-friendly city and could be done without the tour group very easily though. Just make sure you check up on good restaurants and shopping (I suggest asking Will haha). I like Beijing though, and it was fun to hang out with Will. Didn’t see the Emperor’s Summer Palace, so maybe I’ll return some day for that. Now I must sleep because it’s 2am!

Much love from China,
Daniel

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