So I went to China for Chuesok, 5 days in Beijing. We started off by taking a 1 and 1/2 hour metro ride to Incheon airport, but honestly it's one of the nicest airport ever, they had soo many plants!
KIMCHI on the plane!!! in a bag, which I did not eat but I managed to smell it all over my area. Smelly cabbage. For some clarification, Kimchi is fermented cabbage, and koreans eat it religiously, there are also different types of kimchi, like cucumber kimchi, etc.
When arriving to China, I saw a lot of what i concluded was burning trash. I doubt China has the slash and burn farming system. What a sight though, had to snap a shot.
Beijing airport, the sign was more welcoming then the airport attendees were...
Ok, so arriving to China on the day of one of the biggest festivities all year round was not the wisest idea. Our hostel was closed due to the fact that all the hostels/hotels were closed around the Forbidden City, so we got stuck in this POS, New Dragon Hostel. It was crap, the workers there basically told us that as well.
The lanterns were cool though!
So me and sarah ended up eating at least 5 times a day to avoid being stuck at that horrid hostel. Here we are eating boiled peanuts and edamame.
We also got cold kimchi noodle soup which was honestly the highlight of the food that night. boiled peanuts should just never exist.
mmmm mmmm. Along with having this absolutely delicious food, we were also situated out on the street so everyone could see that foreigners were eating there. It was ok, the beer in the dirty mugs was a bit disgusting though, even for me.
A sign in the New Dragon Hostel, usually this stuff is put up for a reason. So, I'm guessing all of these things take place there very frequently.
So, we went to this restaurant and this was the door of the bathroom. There was a squatter toilet right behind it and it was all too see through. Really ridiculous since tables were facing the freakin door!
The next day after re situating ourselves in our actual hostel, Forbidden City Hotel, we walked to the Forbidden City. It was so close, which is quite the statement because everything is not close in Beijing. But an old man took this picture and I was just very impressed!
Forbidden city, thats what pretty much what most of it looked like...
Aside from the big courtyards, the other sides of the forbidden city were huge alleyways. Just like every place in Beijing they were very long and uneventful.
The tree was over 400 year olds and growing out of a dead one.
After the Forbidden City, we exited from the North gate to walk a few blocks (aka 1 km) to get to Beihai park. It was beautiful and colorful, and had the freshest flower arrangements.
Beautiful bridge leading to an interesting temple.
Lotus plants grow out of the water and the leaves were about 5 times the side of your head. Red laterns were every where due to the holidays.
I walked past a water portrait on the sidewalk. The fast was almost completely dried up.
Outside of Beihai Park and starving, I passed a stand that sold fish in keychains. Interesting to say the least. i wanted to buy one, but considered it cruel.
That night we went to the food market that was a half a block away from the house.
They sold everything from starfishes to sea urchins. I do not know how to eat a starfish or why anyone would eat a sea urchin, but it sure looked interesting.
I wasn't really sure what this was. It was some sort of seafood, maybe someone can enlighten me on what it is.
They also sold this tea which was super cloudy yet cold. It came in blueberry, raspberry, and green tea flavor.
The most popular stand at the market was the insect stand. I heard Chinese people actually don't eat the scorpions because I'm guessing they taste like crap. I spared myself from that, but it was disgusting to watch them wriggle on a stick.
The many people checking out the market.
Trying to find some Beijing duck I encountered these lanterns in the middle of a stairwell.
So me and my friend sarah finally arrived at the Great Wall of China at Badaljing, the next day, one of the most restored sections. It was disappointing to find out we had to climb the bitch! I mean, I guess I didn't think about it, but feeling like a zombie on our whole trip did not help the cause.
Here we are ready to get up there, sorry the picture are not order...
It was beautiful, and almost no one was on our side of the wall, which was the easier side, go figure!
The other side of the wall was packed with thousands of people, it was VERRRY steep and VERRRY crowded, we didn't feel like making that big of an effort.
We went to Tiananmen Square that night, that was also only a few blocks away from our house. Thank god we went at night, although it was ridiculously crowded, it was also beautiful lit. Here is the front of Mao's Mausoleum, there must of been over 20,000 people at the square that night.
I had to use the porto potties, and i kid not, these were the stalls. They were squatters, the doors would not lock, and you could basically see anyone who was in there peeing. Luckily for me, there was practically no one, so I went to the farthest corner to relieve myself.
Me and Sarah as Communist Devils. They were selling these horns everywhere, we thought, kill two birds with one stone, and bought them for halloween as well. It was a genius idea, all in all! For only 1 dollar!
The fish at my hostel, probably not that interesting, but look at them, they were just all staring!! it was hilarious.
Lama temple, people giving incense offerings before entering the temple. I had a problem with this as I saw some foreigners giving incense offerings when they apparently were not buddhist. Now my problem is this, is that ACTUAL buddhist are praying to they re certain Buddha or what not, while the foreigner is probably thinking of nothing but how cool it is to pretend to be cultured. As if we weren't exploiting the temple enough, we have to exploit the religion too?
Beautiful alleyways, sarah and I were exhausted as usual!
Temple of heaven. Me and sarah paid 15 Yuan to get into the park, you can pay 40 to go and actually see the inside of the temples. I'm still debating whether its worth to see the inside since everything is over crowded, and temples were all starting to look the same to us.
Near the food market there is also a huge shopping market in an alleyway. Best way to get deals and barter with people, they are begging for a barter, and BARTER WAAAAY LOW! thats my recommendation.
All the crap they sold, half the crap I bought from China broke, kind of surprised, mostly just annoyed.
The sky above the market...
Sarah outside near the market.
On the way home at the airport we stopped at a Thai restaurant and had the best soup EVER! dipping rice into soup has become one of my favorite pass time. I recommend, especially with the milky tom yum goong, still craving it!
