OK this is my trip to BeiJing
Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 10:45 am
February 12 – 13
12:00PM. Barcelona – Madrid flight (less than 50 minutes).
17:00PM. Madrid – BeiJing. The flight lasts almost 12 hours. The seats are so uncomfortable nobody can sleep. We land in BeiJing the next morning at 12PM (it’s still 5AM for us). Since the flight was late, we don’t go straight to the hotel (d***!!!), but go to lunch at Bei Hai Park:
http://eos.photonik.tuwien.ac.at/china/ ... 27-220.JPG
After lunch, we were supposed to visit the Temple of Heaven (http://www.hearnweb.com/china/image/14- ... heaven.jpg) , but since it’s already late we head off to the hotel. Fewwwwwwww. Everybody is so tired, I am desperate to take a shower and fall asleep. The hotel is awesome!! http://beijing.swissotel.com
I’m in room 721.
February 14
6:30AM. Morning call (aghhhhhh). We go downstairs to have breakfast. I can’t believe my eyes. I was so eager to taste the real Chinese fried noodles, but I wasn’t expecting to have them for breakfast! Noodles, fried rice, sausages, and other stuff I don’t know is served, along with more typical Westerner breakfast stuff like orange and apple juice, croissants, yoghourts, cereal, coffee and milk are served. I have an orange juice, two croissants and and a strawberry and banana yoghurt!!! I can’t even believe it, me, accustomed to having just a cup of milk in the morning, eating all that!
8:30AM. We head off to visit the Ming Tombs (by the way, Lennye, I wasn’t told to do anything there… ¿?) and the Sacred Way (http://www.mcla.edu/About_MCLA/Services ... 0Tombs.JPG)
After lunch we head off to the Great Wall in Badaling. What to say… Amazing, really. When I take my estelada (Catalan indepentist flag: http://www.kumbaworld.com/estelada.png) to take a picture with it, everybody in my group goes crazy. They all want to have a picture taken with it. A man even tells me I should make them pay for borrowing it, lol.
For dinner, we go to a popular restaurant in Beijing, known for their delicious BeiJing duck. My goodness! I had not tasted something so delicious for ages!
When I get to my hotel room, I go straight to the shower and I can hear my mom talking to me from outside. She says there’s a paper on the floor behind the wall. It says “Guest message” on it. When I get off the shower we open it. It says: “Dear Mrs XXX, Violet called you. Please call her back at XXXXXXXXXXXX. Thank you.”. I am so excited! Violet called me! So I call her back and we arrange to meet the next day at the Forbidden City. Wooohooooooooooo!
February 15
6:30AM. Damn morning call.
In the morning we visit Tian an’men square and the Forbidden City. We find ourselves surrounded by local people in a few seconds. They all stare at my cousin Angela in amazement. Some of them even dare come closer and touch her. It’s like she’s an exotic creature.
As we are about to enter the Forbidden City, my cell rings and it’s Violet! She’s already in the Forbidden City. It’s so exciting to meet her! The managers of my group say she can stay and have lunch with us, but unfortunately she can only stay for a few moments. Ewww. Anyway, I am so glad you came, Violet. Like I told you, it meant a lot to me. Thank you again! Oh and she brought me a little present, which I liked so much! I will keep it like a treasure.
After lunch we visit the Summer Palace. That’s where the Empress used to spend the summer. OMG! As I was walking through it, I imagined how it looked back in those times. I just loved it, especially the frozen lake and the marble ship!
Later we visit the pearl market and then we head off to the hotel.
February 16
7:00AM Morning call. Agh.
Today is coooooooooooooold. We visit the Temple of Heaven but can only see the first temple, not the real one, because it’s being refurbished because of the Olympics (in fact everything’s being refurbished because of the games). My mom’s really disappointed, since she wanted to see it so badly.
Afterwards we take a ride on bicycles and we visit one of the poorest districts in BeiJing. We even visit a house there. It’s so sad, they don’t even have a bathroom. People have to share a public bathroom with thirty families. In fact I don’t know why we were taken to visit that house, but on the other hand I think that it’s good to see the real BeiJing, you know, not only the huge hotels and wealth areas. 60% of the population in BeiJing is poor. They all live in grey houses, while the Emperor used to live in the Forbidden City, which is all painted red and yellow. The poor people lived in grey houses because that was the color of poverty, of inferior groups. How sad.
After lunch we visit the Lama Temple. It looks great although no photos are allowed. There’s a wooden Buddha 26 meters tall. I even took a picture of a monk but it was moved so I deleted it :D
Afterwards we visit the Silk Market and then we go to the theatre. Great!
February 17
Shopping all day. It’s impressive, really. We haggle all the time. For instance, I'm asked 280 yuans for a shirt I really like. We offer 40. The girl says it can't be, that that shirt is handmade, it is the best one she has in the shop and asks me to rise the price a little. I say 40 is my final offer. After a while she says 50. I say 40 again and she say no way so we leave. We are in the shop opposite when suddenly someone touches my elbow. It is the girl. She says I can have the shirt for 40.
Itiss funny but tiring. Everybody's haggling all the time. In fact that’s what they expect. They give you a really high price and then you have to haggle. It's funny, really. I get shirts for 5 euros (50 yuans). We want to buy two leather jackets and we are asked 1800 yuans for one and 1600 for the other one. Finally we get them both for 1000.
Today we have lunch at McDonald’s. OMG. It’s so spicy but delicious!
February 18
Another free day we spend shopping. We go to Wangfuging, a very popular pedestrian street in BeiJing not far from Tian an’men square. There’s a huge mall there, along with many other stores. We have lunch at KFC :D
February 19
We gather a group of people and head off to WangFuGing again. We were told there’s a street there where you can get small fried portions of the following bugs: scorpions, starfish, grasshoppers, chrysalis, etc. No one bought any, but I took a pair of photos for you to see. Ewww.
We have lunch at a Spanish restaurant near the hotel. We order paella. I’ve tasted better ones but it tastes good, no complaints there :D Every one in the restaurant is from my group except for a couple from Venezuela. It’s so funny. It should be called Catalan restaurant instead.
February 20
Last breakfast at the hotel. I am gonna miss those bacon and cheese omelettes! Me, who just have a glass of milk for breakfast at home, I’ve been eating a lot for breakfast in China, really.
At 10AM we leave the hotel and at 13:45 the plane takes off… Again, a 12-hour flight… This time we go towards the sun so we don’t see the night until we get to Madrid, at 18:45. We are so tired, but we still have to get a plane to Barcelona. Thankfully it’s just 50 minutes… However, there’s still a 2-hour trip home. We get home at 12AM, which means I’ve been awake and travelling for 24 hours… I am so tired I don’t even know what day it is.
And next year… SAN FRANCISCO!!!
12:00PM. Barcelona – Madrid flight (less than 50 minutes).
17:00PM. Madrid – BeiJing. The flight lasts almost 12 hours. The seats are so uncomfortable nobody can sleep. We land in BeiJing the next morning at 12PM (it’s still 5AM for us). Since the flight was late, we don’t go straight to the hotel (d***!!!), but go to lunch at Bei Hai Park:
http://eos.photonik.tuwien.ac.at/china/ ... 27-220.JPG
After lunch, we were supposed to visit the Temple of Heaven (http://www.hearnweb.com/china/image/14- ... heaven.jpg) , but since it’s already late we head off to the hotel. Fewwwwwwww. Everybody is so tired, I am desperate to take a shower and fall asleep. The hotel is awesome!! http://beijing.swissotel.com
I’m in room 721.
February 14
6:30AM. Morning call (aghhhhhh). We go downstairs to have breakfast. I can’t believe my eyes. I was so eager to taste the real Chinese fried noodles, but I wasn’t expecting to have them for breakfast! Noodles, fried rice, sausages, and other stuff I don’t know is served, along with more typical Westerner breakfast stuff like orange and apple juice, croissants, yoghourts, cereal, coffee and milk are served. I have an orange juice, two croissants and and a strawberry and banana yoghurt!!! I can’t even believe it, me, accustomed to having just a cup of milk in the morning, eating all that!
8:30AM. We head off to visit the Ming Tombs (by the way, Lennye, I wasn’t told to do anything there… ¿?) and the Sacred Way (http://www.mcla.edu/About_MCLA/Services ... 0Tombs.JPG)
After lunch we head off to the Great Wall in Badaling. What to say… Amazing, really. When I take my estelada (Catalan indepentist flag: http://www.kumbaworld.com/estelada.png) to take a picture with it, everybody in my group goes crazy. They all want to have a picture taken with it. A man even tells me I should make them pay for borrowing it, lol.
For dinner, we go to a popular restaurant in Beijing, known for their delicious BeiJing duck. My goodness! I had not tasted something so delicious for ages!
When I get to my hotel room, I go straight to the shower and I can hear my mom talking to me from outside. She says there’s a paper on the floor behind the wall. It says “Guest message” on it. When I get off the shower we open it. It says: “Dear Mrs XXX, Violet called you. Please call her back at XXXXXXXXXXXX. Thank you.”. I am so excited! Violet called me! So I call her back and we arrange to meet the next day at the Forbidden City. Wooohooooooooooo!
February 15
6:30AM. Damn morning call.
In the morning we visit Tian an’men square and the Forbidden City. We find ourselves surrounded by local people in a few seconds. They all stare at my cousin Angela in amazement. Some of them even dare come closer and touch her. It’s like she’s an exotic creature.
As we are about to enter the Forbidden City, my cell rings and it’s Violet! She’s already in the Forbidden City. It’s so exciting to meet her! The managers of my group say she can stay and have lunch with us, but unfortunately she can only stay for a few moments. Ewww. Anyway, I am so glad you came, Violet. Like I told you, it meant a lot to me. Thank you again! Oh and she brought me a little present, which I liked so much! I will keep it like a treasure.
After lunch we visit the Summer Palace. That’s where the Empress used to spend the summer. OMG! As I was walking through it, I imagined how it looked back in those times. I just loved it, especially the frozen lake and the marble ship!
Later we visit the pearl market and then we head off to the hotel.
February 16
7:00AM Morning call. Agh.
Today is coooooooooooooold. We visit the Temple of Heaven but can only see the first temple, not the real one, because it’s being refurbished because of the Olympics (in fact everything’s being refurbished because of the games). My mom’s really disappointed, since she wanted to see it so badly.
Afterwards we take a ride on bicycles and we visit one of the poorest districts in BeiJing. We even visit a house there. It’s so sad, they don’t even have a bathroom. People have to share a public bathroom with thirty families. In fact I don’t know why we were taken to visit that house, but on the other hand I think that it’s good to see the real BeiJing, you know, not only the huge hotels and wealth areas. 60% of the population in BeiJing is poor. They all live in grey houses, while the Emperor used to live in the Forbidden City, which is all painted red and yellow. The poor people lived in grey houses because that was the color of poverty, of inferior groups. How sad.
After lunch we visit the Lama Temple. It looks great although no photos are allowed. There’s a wooden Buddha 26 meters tall. I even took a picture of a monk but it was moved so I deleted it :D
Afterwards we visit the Silk Market and then we go to the theatre. Great!
February 17
Shopping all day. It’s impressive, really. We haggle all the time. For instance, I'm asked 280 yuans for a shirt I really like. We offer 40. The girl says it can't be, that that shirt is handmade, it is the best one she has in the shop and asks me to rise the price a little. I say 40 is my final offer. After a while she says 50. I say 40 again and she say no way so we leave. We are in the shop opposite when suddenly someone touches my elbow. It is the girl. She says I can have the shirt for 40.
Itiss funny but tiring. Everybody's haggling all the time. In fact that’s what they expect. They give you a really high price and then you have to haggle. It's funny, really. I get shirts for 5 euros (50 yuans). We want to buy two leather jackets and we are asked 1800 yuans for one and 1600 for the other one. Finally we get them both for 1000.
Today we have lunch at McDonald’s. OMG. It’s so spicy but delicious!
February 18
Another free day we spend shopping. We go to Wangfuging, a very popular pedestrian street in BeiJing not far from Tian an’men square. There’s a huge mall there, along with many other stores. We have lunch at KFC :D
February 19
We gather a group of people and head off to WangFuGing again. We were told there’s a street there where you can get small fried portions of the following bugs: scorpions, starfish, grasshoppers, chrysalis, etc. No one bought any, but I took a pair of photos for you to see. Ewww.
We have lunch at a Spanish restaurant near the hotel. We order paella. I’ve tasted better ones but it tastes good, no complaints there :D Every one in the restaurant is from my group except for a couple from Venezuela. It’s so funny. It should be called Catalan restaurant instead.
February 20
Last breakfast at the hotel. I am gonna miss those bacon and cheese omelettes! Me, who just have a glass of milk for breakfast at home, I’ve been eating a lot for breakfast in China, really.
At 10AM we leave the hotel and at 13:45 the plane takes off… Again, a 12-hour flight… This time we go towards the sun so we don’t see the night until we get to Madrid, at 18:45. We are so tired, but we still have to get a plane to Barcelona. Thankfully it’s just 50 minutes… However, there’s still a 2-hour trip home. We get home at 12AM, which means I’ve been awake and travelling for 24 hours… I am so tired I don’t even know what day it is.
And next year… SAN FRANCISCO!!!