Forbidden City

On Saturday, Matt and I had breakfast and headed out to the Forbidden City. It was pretty and all, but the most interesting thing about our visit was the audio guide. It was so informative! It made it so much more interesting to hear about the lives and customs of the emperors and empresses that lived there. Of course, it made it a lot longer also, so we didn't get around to all of the parts of the Forbidden City. This is just as well though, since I will probably have more visitors while I am here and then I can hear the parts I didn't get to hear about the first time.

Hearing about all of the excess and extravagance of the imperial court was pretty amazing. And gross considering that they lived in such unbelievable luxury while many of the people in the country were so poor and hungry.


A view of the Forbidden City from Across the Moat 


So Pretty! 


Meagan in the Inner Court 


Meagan at the Forbidden City 


Matt at the Forbidden City 


Cool Stone Carving 


More of the Forbidden City 

Matt made it to Beijing...Finally!

This weekend Matt came to visit me in Beijing, and I was SO happy. I miss him so much, and the worst part is that I won't be back home until January! It is too long! We decided to stay in a hotel while he was here, because I live in Haidian (the student district), and it is about an hour by taxi or subway into the center of town. The center of town is where all of the action is, and all o the historical sights as well. So, rather than spend our whole weekend in the taxi we decided to fork over the cash for a hotel room. Our hotel was only a few steps from Wanfujing Dajie, which is a major shopping street that even has some western stores and a Starbucks. We could walk to the Forbidden City and to Tian'anmen Square, so it was nice. I hate riding in taxis here because I always seem to get car sick...The air is polluted and the drivers drive like maniacs. Plus, there is a ton of traffic at all times, sort of like Los Angeles.


Wanfujing Dajie 


A Street in Beijing 

White Stupa Temple

At my school, everyone has language partners to practice English and Chinese with. Unfortunately for me, I usually end up speaking English the whole time with my language partner, Catherine. I don't know that many Chinese words yet, and we usually try to speak Chinese at first, but when we exhaust the subjects of pencils and books and teachers, we start speaking English. I consider her more of a cultural partner rather than a language partner. She asks me lots of questions about the US and California. She told me that she loves LA and that she wants to marry an American born Chinese and move to Los Angeles. She hasn't been to LA, so I am not sure how she knows she loves it, but I guess it is similar to Beijing in that both cities are very spread out, have lots of traffic, and are polluted! I love both places though, so I shouldn't be too hard on them!

We went to a temple and it was sort of interesting, and then she wanted to take me shopping. We went to a ridiculously expensive mall that was full of very ugly clothes. She goes there when she wants to look at things but not buy them. They had an Esprit there, that not only had very ugly clothes, but it was also super expensive, like 580 yuan for a shirt. That is like 60 US dollars for an Esprit T shirt that is plain white with a giant Esprit logo across the front. Gross! They also had a Levi's store, and the cheapest pair of Levis were 100 US dollars. Heinous! The rest of the stores I did not recognize, but they were equally expensive and did not have cute stuff. I guess I will have to wait for Hong Kong to go shopping, or better yet, the US.

My language partner is very nice, and very conservative. She told me that her previous language partner was from Texas and he offended her when he asked her if she had a boyfriend the first time they met. She said, "Do you do ask that in the US the first time you meet?" I said that it wouldn't be that weird if you were trying to make conversation, I mean, you are with your language partner for hours, you have to talk about a lot of subjects to pass the time. She seemed appalled by it, and said that in China you never ask that unless you know each other really well. Maybe the Texan was just creepy, and that is why she is disturbed, I don't know. I guess I will have to make more Chinese friends to see if this is a common feeling.


A Statue of a Lion guarding the White Stupa Temple 


Me and my language partner, Catherine 

Old Summer Palace

When we got back from our trip to Inner Mongolia, the weather in Beijing was so gorgeous that Audrey and I decided to go to the Old Summer Palace. We rode our bikes from our house and it was a very pleasant day. There are some ruins there, but mainly it is just a big, gorgeous park with lakes and canals and lotus flowers and pretty little alcoves to sit in. There were tons of couples there and I was very bitter because I hadn't seen Matt for so long! I miss him a lot actually and I don't like to live away from him for so long,



Scenic Part of the Old Summer Palace 


Audrey at the Old Summer Palace 

The End of our Trip to Inner Mongolia

In the end, our trip was fun, but I would definitely like to go to Mongolia with Matt in the future. (Preferably in the summer when it is warm!) Inner Mongolia is supposed to be just like Mongolia, except that it is part of the People's Republic of China, The government relocated many Han Chinese there, and now only 15% of the population is actually Mongolian. The places we went were overrun with Chinese tourists, which could have to do with the fact that we were there during Golden Week. Or, it could have to do with the fact that it is a place that the Chinese can go to easily that is a little bit different than the rest of China, and hence it is interesting to them. Hopefully in Mongolia, it would be less crowded, less geared towards tourists, and more Mongolian. Still, I am glad that I saw Inner Mongolia.

In Hohhot we went to a Buddhist temple that was sort of cool, but honestly, I have seen countless Buddhist temples in China and this was probably one of the least inspiring. It did have really cool inscriptions in several languages and a map of the stars. Also, it has some interesting hanging plants in the entrance, I think they were what loofahs are made out of, but I am not sure.


Temple in Hohhot 


My reflection in a map of the stars 


Tibetan, Chinese, Mongolian and Urdu all on one temple...very cool 


Hanging Loofahs? 

Mongolian Script

While I was in Inner Mongolia, I was fascinated by the Mongolian characters. They look so difficult to learn! It sort of made me feel better because in comparison, Chinese characters seem so simple. I am not sure if that is because I am more used to looking at them and have learned a few Chinese charcters, or if it is because the Mongolian characters are truly difficult to understand. They look really cool thoug, very vertical and narrow.



Mongolian Characters Above, Chinese Below 


Mongolian 


Chinese 

Sand Dunes in the Gobi Desert (aka Circus in the Gobi Desert)

On our trip we also went to the Resonant Sand Gorge Dunes. I was really excited about this because it is in the Gobi Desert, which doesn't really mean much but I guess just sounds very exotic to me. I love the stark beauty of the desert, so I was very eager to go to some dunes! It was definitely not what I thought it was going to be. In the US, we try to preserve our natural wonders and keep them pristine and beautiful. In China, they seem to turn them into circus arenas. We arrived at the sand dunes and took a chair lift to get up them, and they were covered with people. You could get your picture taken in Mongolian outfits, you coul take a ride on a giant truck that seated about 20 people, you could do archery, you could sled down the hill, you could ride camels in a small circle, you could drive a little go-kart in a circle, or you could get in a giant plastiv bubble and be pushed in a circle. I guess this is just really not my style. I was thinking longingly of Death Valley, which can be crowded sometimes, but would never reach that sort of level of carnival type atmosphere. I admit, I was thinking, "Wow, I travel all around the world, and the most beautiful, perfect place is the United States, particularly California." Ok, ok, not very much of a culturally aware, open minded attitude, I am entitled to my own thoughts, right? My thoughts of Death Valley also led me to thinking of my trip to Montana this summer and how phenomenally, mind blowingly, awe inspiringly gorgeous that was, and how in general the US is gorgeous and wonderful and how all my friends and family back home and perfect and how I love and miss them. I vowed to myself that eventually I will go back and live where I have roots and my children can feel connected to their home. I don't think Matt has this strong of a need to feel connected and feel roots, but I do. I love traveling and living abroad, but I also love my home.

All this being said, I have to admit, sliding down the sand dunes was really fun.

Another note about the sand dunes...the day before we were there, a boy from our school brok his hip while at the sand dunes. I am not sure how it happened, but the break was severe enough that he has to stay in the hospital for three months in Batou City. If you could see Batou City, you would know why this is such a bummer. I can't even imagine staying there for three months in the hosipital bed. No English books, magazines, TV, no friends or family. He was from New Zealand. If he is like most people at my school, he is probably young. I can only hope that his family came up immediately to see him, that he has health insurance and that he has friends to visit him. I didn't know him, only heard it from a teacher at our school that was on our tour with us. It disturbed me greatly! I don't even know his name but I keep thinking about him and how I hope he is ok.


"Sledding" on the Sand Dunes 


Audrey sliding down the dune 

Yurts on the Grasslands

Our trip to Inner Mongolia was interesting, but I am not sure if I ever need to go on an organized tour again. Still, if there ever was a good time to go on an organized tour, it was this time. I was slightly burnt out from excessive travel, and also frustrated with trying to get my life set up in Beijing, so it was nice to be on "cruise control" and have someone else do the organizing for me! Also, I got to meet a lot of people from my school and I see them around campus and that is sort of nice. A lot of the people at my school are quite a bit younger than me, and it was sort of funny to watch them all interact with eachother. Audrey and I were the "old ladies" on the trip. We were 7 to 8 years older than most other people! A lot of kids come to BLCU for a year off between high school and college, or they come here to get their bachelor's degree. I guess I must look or act young because when people found out how old I was they seemed very surprised.

One perk of being on an organized tour is that we always had big meals and lots of people to share with, so we got to try a lot of new things. At each meal we sat at tables of ten, and that is much more fun than eating by yourself or with just one other person. The other advantage to traveling with a tour group is that you always have a ride everywhere and you never have to haggle with taxi drivers or deal with getting ripped off, which can happen easily if you are not paying attention. Paying attention adds stress to any trip, so it was nice to not have to deal with it. Everything in Inner Mongolia is quite far apart, so if it was a good place to be part of a tour.

We took the train over night from Beijing to Hohhot. It took about 15 hours, but it seemed like a blink. We were on a sleeper train and it was actually very comfortable and clean. I was expecting it to be like the trains in India, but they were much more clean and relaxing!

In Hohhot we went to the Inner Mongolia Museum which was sort of interesting, but most of the placards were in Chinese so I didn't get that much out of it. Then we went out to the Xilamuren Grasslands and went horse back riding on these little Mongolian Horses. It was sort of fun but sort of not, since we were in such a big group and so the horses just followed each other.

That night we stayed in a yurt and it was COLD!!! The grasslands are very cold and windy. Luckily, I had bought a jacket before I went on the trip, but even with the jacket I was frozen. The yurts were basically just tents and were not very warm inside, and so I think my muscles were tense the whole night trying to keep warm, and the next day I was so sore!

The grasslands were not as scenic as I thought they would be, but they did feel magnificently open and free compared to Beijing. I was expecting tall grass, but it was very short. I really shouldn't judge all grasslands by the ones hat I went to, because they were the closest to the city and probably the most touristy, but still they were 2 hours from town.


Audrey in her bunk on the way to Hohhot 


Yurts 


Audrey at the entrance to our yurt resort 


Me in front of our yurt...Yes, I am COLD! 


Inner Mongolia Museum 


Me on the Grasslands 


Horse Back Riding on the Little Mongolian Horses 

Golden Week

This week in China is Golden Week, in honor of National Day. Everyone in China has is on vacation this week, including me! Audrey and I are going on a trip to Inner Mongolia with our school. It should be interesting...I will be part of one of those Chinese-style tours where there are 80 people getting on and off of buses, following a guide and taking pictures all at the same time. It is not exactly my usual style of traveling, but after all of the hassles and frustrations of getting my life set up in Beijing, I am happy to not have to think about any of the arrangements, I just have to follow the group.

It should be fun, despite being with a kajillion other students. We are going to visit the grasslands and stay in a Mongolian yurt. I will be back next Friday, and hopefully I will post some pictures of Inner Mongolia. (Provided that nothing goes wrong with the internet access in my apartment or with my camera, or anything else...things seem to go wrong quite often in China!)