R.I.P. Starbucks

I will post a more lengthy update about the last week tomorrow, but I'm amazed it's already been a week since my last update! My time here in Beijing is flying by. I just wanted to make a quick post to point out that I was one of the last customers ever at the Starbucks in the Forbidden City - it closed yesterday for good. Check out what CNN Money had to say about it.

Here's one last picture of me, clutching my beloved Starbucks, at the Forbidden City.

Finally...

I'm finally making another post! I know it's been a long time since I have posted but now I am finally settling into life in Beijing and I have a little bit of free time as well. Quite a few exciting things have happened since the last time I updated.

So far I've been living on my own in Beijing for over a week and I have taken a full week of classes at Beijing University (in Chinese we call it Bei Da). I have to say - life here at Beijing University is much different from my experience traveling around China. However, that's not to say I'm not having a great time!

For starters, the language barrier is much more prevalent now that I no longer constantly attend "tourist" locations and have a translating guide with me at all times. When shopping, ordering food, or even taking a taxi English is not usually an option. Luckily my friends and I have gotten great at point at the menu and, with our limited Chinese skills, we can usually piece together a decent order.

My dorm is awesome as well. I am living with two fellow Richmond kids named Ben and Kyle and the accommodations themselves are pleasant. We have our own private bathroom, air conditioned rooms, and access to a vast array of on and off campus restaurants. Classes are going well so far, but one thing that makes them very interesting is the fact that the teachers speak almost no English, and even those that do speak it refuse to use it when talking to the students.

Other than my living situation, life in Beijing has been really fun so far. In order to save time and not write a massive entry I will break the last week into 3 main events.

Last Thursday our whole group took a group trip to the Temple of Heaven and the Hong Qiao market. The Temple of Heaven was actually quite different from last time I visited it. Since it was raining last time we only saw the temple grounds for about twenty or thirty minutes. This time, however, I was able to see an entirely different entrance to the temple and visit several different locations on the temple grounds that I hadn't seen before. It was also great to see the temple on a sunny day without rain obscuring my view. The only downside to the sunny day was the withering heat - check out this picture of me and my friends Rebbecca, Ben, and Kyle.

Once we arrived at Hong Qiao the crack bargaining team of myself, Ben, and Kyle went to work frustrating merchants left and right. Our powers combined we have negotiated some ridiculous bargains at various marketplaces throughout Beijing (including the Beijing Silk Market this past Sunday). After hours of haggling with various Chinese vendors we have learned some of the finer points of getting the best deal and discovered the best prices for various items (Polo Shirts for 25 quai - that's about $3.20, North Face Jackets for 100 Quai). I have to say, I have a great time just haggling with these various shops. We would go to various shops and bargain for stuff we didn't even want just to see how ridiculous of a price we could get it for.

The second thing I wanted to write home about (har har) was the Fourth of July. It was truly strange to experience July 4th in a foreign country. The weirdest part about the entire day was that it almost passed without notice. Around about 10 P.M. Ben, Kyle, and I decided to head out on the town to try and find someone that was celebrating our great nation's birthday. Entirely by accident, actually, we stumbled upon a massive outdoor "International Beer Town" (garden), and within a few minutes of our arrival a few Americans jumped up and began singing the national anthem, prompting many others to join in. We spent the rest of our night celebrating and singing with the other American's at the garden - it was a great time.
Lastly, on Saturday morning I visited Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City (again). I didn't take as many pictures this time but I did enjoy the Starbucks (maybe even more). My other favorite part of the visit was being harassed by the various merchants peddling hats, books, and other trinkets throughout the day. With my new bargaining skills the merchants usually ended up far more frustrated and annoyed than me! That's all for now, I don't want to write an essay. I will try to keep my updates more frequent and less lengthy, so until next time Zai Jian!

Stay Tuned...

I just wanted to make a post to clarify how the blog is going to operate from here on out.

I will keep updating the blog on a somewhat regular basis (once a week, or so, depending on how things go). But please don't expect daily updates, since they would probably get somewhat monotonous after a while. However, I will be updating cool and exciting things that happen to me so be sure to stay tuned every once in a while to see how things are going.

Remember - I will be in China (almost exclusively) until December 2007, so until mid December '07 I will keep updating the blog with some frequency.

Thanks to everyone for reading my blog and giving me feedback!

P.S. If you're wondering what the picture is, I visited a local fletcher (bow maker) this morning. He is one of the last masters of this ancient craft in all of China, and he is trained in a style of bow-making that dates back 10 generations. Check out this NPR story about him.

Day Fifteen

I'll begin my post today with a fact I forgot to mention yesterday. Following what I suppose is becoming a tradition on this trip of being housed with world leaders, we found out (and saw them both first hand in the lobby) that the King and Queen of Spain are staying in our hotel. Luckily for us their "security apparatus" wasn't nearly as obtrusive as the Iraqi President's, but they royal family did manage to freeze downtown traffic for nearly an our upon our return to the hotel. It looks like our hotel is truly fit for kings!

Our day was primarily focused around our visit to one of the modern wonders of the world (I can check another one off my list) - the Great Wall of China. A structure so vast and impressive that it is one of the few human creations that can be seen from outer space.

We took a cable car up to our portion of the wall because it was one of the highest and hardest to reach sections. Before arriving at the top, however, I managed get an awesome picture with a local who was dressed to kill (I know... there are too many puns in this entry).
Once at the top, we were able to explore for a leisurely amount of time. My mom and I walked a fairly lengthy expanse of the wall, but some of our pictures were slightly tarnished by a thick mist that permeated the forest all around the wall. I'm sure if you look hard enough, however, you can still see how far off it goes into the distance.

Witnessing the height and expanse of the Great Wall first hand was incredible. While it may not look as if the wall is particularity high - consider the fact that the plants reaching up the sides of the wall are not bushes or shrubs but rather the tops of trees. I would have loved to spend even more time walking among the towers and guard posts of the wall but sadly we eventually had to depart.

We spent the rest of the afternoon visiting the Temple of Heaven, a beautiful local temple in Beijing where many locals spend their free time, and the Hong Qiao market - a massive bazaar of cheaper-than-you-could-imagine Chinese knockoffs offering everything from Polo Shirts to Rolex watches.

Sadly, tonight was the last night of our group trip and we had a delicious farewell diner at the world renowned and exclusive China Club. Everyone else leaves in the morning and I have only two more days until my summer study at the University of Beijing starts. I had any awesome trip with everyone and I hope y'all enjoy reading my blog from back in the states. Now the true adventure begins! Zai jian!

Day Fourteen

Our morning began with a trip to Tiananmen Square - the largest public square in the world and an internationally renowned location. The square itself was truly massive - spanning farther than the eye (or camera for that matter) could see. In fact, even buildings that should have been in plain sight were obscured by a mist (possibly pollution related) that shrouded nearly the entire city. Nonetheless, we were able to capture a pretty solid picture of ourselves in front of Mao's portrait, possibly the most famous location in Tiananmen Square.

While the square houses Mao's tomb, which displays his actual body, it was unfortunately closed for renovation during our visit due to China's preparation for the 2008 Olympics. I was somewhat disappointed by this fact because I wanted to check Mao off the list of long dead communist leaders whose tombs I have visited (I've seen both Ho Chi Min and Vladamir Lenin in the flesh).

Following our trek around Tiananmen we ventured into the ominous Forbidden City. Completely closed to the public until 1949, the Forbidden City is one of China's other hallmark tourist attractions. No photographs or descriptions could possibly convey the size and scope of the Forbidden city. We spent nearly two hours in an almost linear journey through the complex, traversing dozens of passage ways, massive courtyards, and, yes, even stopping at a Starbucks (they have on near the inner courtyard... it was a bitter-sweet experience for me to see one of my favorite shops inside such an ancient historical landmark).

We spent almost the entire morning in the Forbidden City and I can safely say that we all felt as if we had barely seen any of it! One of the most interesting sights that we witnessed within the Forbidden City was the changing of the guard at one of the early outer courtyards.
Following a tasty lunch at a local Beijing restaurant near the rear of the Forbidden City, we ventured to the Summer Palace, where the imperial family spent the hotter months of each year. The palace itself is even larger than the Forbidden City - boasting over 1,000 individual buildings and two lakes (one complete with a giant marble boat built inside of it). The lakes are so large that our guide told us the Emperor once had his entire navy engage in training exercises on the lake for his entertainment. Unfortunately, my camera died soon after arriving and I was only able to snap a few shots of the Summer Palace. Check out the one of my mom walking along a massive corridor that spanned the edge of one of the lakes.

In the evening we watched a dazzling and well choreographed Kung Fu performance at one of Beijing's local theaters. While I had managed to charge my camera by that time, they were very strict about enforcing their "intellectual property rights" that prevented me from taking any pictures (ironic?). Some of the highlights included epic battles, a man laying on top of a bed of swords, and people breaking blades on top of each other's heads. We then headed off to sleep, tomorrow we have even more exciting adventures planned!

Day Thirteen

We began our day in Xian with a trip to see the world renowned terracotta warriors - the army of over 1200 life sized clay soldiers that was built to guard the tomb of one of the Qin emperors. The tomb dates back to over 2,200 years ago! (While we were able to see over 1000 of the soldiers ourselves, scientists predict that there are over 8000 soldiers overall in all of the emperor's tombs and the majority of them have still yet to be discovered or unearthed).

Viewing the soldiers was truly awe-inspiring, it was mind boggling to see such a vast array of literally life sized soldiers (not to mention the fact that each soldier has different facial features). In addition, before the sands of time were able to tarnish these relics, each soldiers was painted, from head to toe, with various colors to further their realism. Each soldier is so realistically crafted that our guide literally said you could "read the palm" of any given soldier, and we could even see their finger nails!
After touring the tombs (and viewing a cheesy but informative historical remake/documentary about the creation of the warriors and the ultimate desecration of the the tomb) my mom and I decided to pose with a few of the soldiers for a nice picture (see above) and my mom actually bought a larger-than-life terracotta remake for our house! You can catch a glimpse of her pointing to the (now named) General Wang Jian (our guide thought it up) below!

For those of you that frequent my house, I'm sure you will soon have a first hand encounter with the man himself. After an extensive day of visiting the warriors, we managed to grab a bite to eat at a fantastic (and apparently famous) dumpling restaurant in Xian. Before departing the city for Beijing later that night we were able to make one last stop at the city wall, which is one of the largest in-tact city walls in the world - spanning over 13 kilometers (9ish miles). The picture I snapped stretches, pretty much, as far as the eye can see. Following a quick stop at a local pagaoda we finally headed off to the airport, flying towards my home for the next six weeks - Beijing.

Day Twelve

Today, once again, was primarily a travel day - but we still managed to have some fun. We began our morning in Guilin with a a tour of the "Reed Flute Caves" - a gorgeous series of underground caves in the hills of the city. The caves featured several fantastic sights - and the lighting was both eerie and incredible. The caves themselves, while now only a tourist attraction, had been used by the residents of Guilin during World War II to escape Japanese bombing raids on the city.

After touring the caves we were able to make a quick stop in a local Guilin market before getting lunch and heading out of town. The market was bustling and vibrant - unlike any farmers market you could imagine in America. Stacks of fresh vegetables lined the tables, various Chinese herbs piled high, freshly cut meat hung off of hooks, dozens of varieties of eggs were available, we saw cages of chickens and ducks waiting to be purchased, and we found dozens of containers of seafood that was also still alive. Check out this vat of eels that we spotted. The market redefined fresh food as we know it!
Having left Guilin we arrived later that day in Xian - a small Chinese city of only seven million - and I'm sure you've never heard of it either. Xian is home to the world renowned Terracotta Warriors (more on that tomorrow), but our adventures in Xian took a surprisingly different turn today. Upon arriving in Xian we found out that the Iraqi President (hes like the U.S. Vice President, aka second in command) Jalal Talabani was staying at our hotel (The Shangrila Golden Flower), as part of his visit to China. Unfortunately for us, that meant a ridiculous amount of security at the hotel. Not only were we forced to go through metal detectors and have all our baggage get X-rayed, but the entire hotel was crawling with police and security officials - they even hassled us on our way to our room. Check out the picture I took of the "security apparatus" from our hotel window. One last tidbit before I sign out for the evening - we got our very own security clearance badges once we were okayed by the various police and security officials at the hotel - you can see me sporting my badge in secret agent fashion below.