...and the rest

-Tuesday, 9.11-
We took a train from Jinan to Beijing in the morning. There were only so many first-class seats available so not all of the students got to ride comfortably, that one student being me. :/ It’s not that the economy seats themselves were uncomfortable, but when you’re sitting next to, um, bigger people, it gets a little claustrophobic. Oh well, one of these days I’ll get to ride first class…
When we got into Beijing, we had lunch with the artist behind the logo for the Beijing 2008 Olympics in the guest room of the cafeteria at CAFA, the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Afterwards, he took us on a tour of the campus. What a nice freaking art school. I would live in China if I could go to grad school there – it’s that amazing. It’s pretty affordable, too, the only problem is getting in (they accept less than 2% of applicants), Anyways, point is, CAFA is the art school all art schools should aspire to be, at least in design, cos it’s the coolest art campus ever.
After we visited CAFA, we took the bus to the Great Wall. There we were treated to an amazing dumpling dinner with all the beer you could ever fathom to drink at this little family’s house a ways away from the touristy side of the Great Wall, after watching the sunset from one of the watchtowers. The food was really good and there was plenty of entertainment watching their cat hunt a praying mantis and eat it. Full and satisfied, we stocked up on beer and flashlights and followed our guide to our campsite on the Great Wall.

The hike up the many flights of stairs almost made me regret bringing the beer in my backpack. Keyword being almost. We were given our sleeping bags when we got to the site, so we all set up our spaces and there the fun began. Some of us played cards, some of us played with flashlights and extended exposure photography, some of us marveled at the crazy bugs. But near the end of the night we all crashed – most of us at least. I had a lot on my mind, so I couldn’t fall asleep as easily.

-Wednesday, 9.12-
Woke up not so bright but still really early on the Great Wall. It was cloudier than expected, but we were still able to catch a glimpse of sunrise before it returned to hiding behind the clouds as we ate a breakfast of granola and coffee. At around 7.30 we embarked on our hike along the spine of the Great Wall.

I shouldn’t have said anything about climbing a lot of stairs the night before, because this was probably the most stairs I’ve ever climbed in my entire life. We started at Tower 4 (where we camped) and made it to like Tower 33 or something – I dunno, I lost count after hiking so much. The Mongols must have been really determined for the Chinese to build a wall in the friggin’ mountains. Nevertheless, it was hands down the coolest part of the trip. We didn’t hike through all the touristy parts ‘til the end, which was really cool cos it felt like we really got to know the real Great Wall, hiking through the rubble and deteriorated sections caused by war and time. It was definitely the most challenging hike I’ve ever done, but it was so worth it. After we crossed the toll bridge to the meeting point, we took a zip-line further down, which, by the way, is a great way to end a hike. We then took a boat to our lunch destination and eat heartily before we were to return on the bus to Beijing.

When we got back to Beijing we visited the 798 Art District. Really cool place. China’s art districts are like a thousand times cooler than ours – theirs’ is like an actual community. Here the group split off. I visited a couple of really cool metalwork galleries, but I wasn’t too interested in the gallery scene. Instead, I walked around the entire art district searching for all the graffiti I could find and photograph, and there was a lot of it. Of course, walking around looking for every nook and cranny can get you lost. And I did. Luckily, I had some sense of direction and was eventually able to find my way back and in time to get on the bus.
For dinner we ate at a steamed bun dumpling restaurant near our hostel. It was pretty good, though I think I’ve had my share of steamed buns and dumplings for the trip. After dinner we went to our hostel and settled down and rested. The hostel was a lot nicer than Ying made it out to be. Seriously, it was a lot cooler than any of the other places we stayed at during our trip. It was an old traditional Chinese house with an open courtyard that was recently renovated into a hostel with foreigners in mind. So it had the look and style of an old Chinese house with the comfortableness of a modern home (mainly, a Western toilet, not a squatter, but there was also internet, a guitar, and a Chinese hackysack). Our time in Beijing has been off to a good start.

-Thursday, 9.13-

And it seems I spoke too soon. It rained all morning while we were at the Forbidden City. Couldn’t it have waited ‘til we got back to Oregon, where it’ll rain nonstop for the next 6 months? Oh well, I guess you can’t have everything. It was still pretty cool though. Before we went into the Forbidden City we hiked up to the top of a hill in a park right next to the north side of the FC. My knees were still tired from 4-5 hours of hiking at the Great Wall, and I could really feel it as I climbed up the stairs to the pavilion. It was a really cool view though, since Beijing is mostly flat except for the hill we were on.
Edwin and I explored the FC, which was pretty cool but it was raining and there were a lot of tourists crowding around everything. Not to mention that the key buildings of interest were all under renovation, most likely to prepare for the onslaught of tourists to come next summer, when the Olympics come to Beijing. When we ran into Tim and Jen outside the exhibit about Cixi, Edwin gave us a nice little history lesson about Cixi and how much she screwed up things for China. More on that later.
After walking through the FC, we walked around Tiananmen Square and found a cheap noodle shop off some side street to have lunch at. We then met up with some others from the group in front of Mao’s Mausoleum (which was also closed for renovations….*sigh*) and walked to a teahouse and chilled there for a bit. Took a taxi back to the hostel, kicked it a bit with the kittens they had there, had dinner nearby at this quaint restaurant, and took it easy for the night. All in all, a pretty laidback day.

-Friday, 9.14-
Woke up to heavy rain and thunder. Great. We started off the day visiting the Temple of Heaven in the pouring rain. And honestly, it was pretty miserable. Is it supposed to rain this much in heaven? Either way, the Temple of Heaven wasn’t anything too spectacular, compared to everything else we’ve seen.
Took a cab back to the hostel and started working on my project. I took advantage of the guitar at the hostel and wrote a song while I still had my burst of inspiration. Had myself a little lunch and a much needed nap. That nap killed my appetite later though, as I barely ate anything for dinner. Later that night, we all went out to Hou Hai, Beijing’s beautiful bar district along the north side of the lake. It was a lot of fun finally being able to get all the students together to go out. We started at a swanky little bar with some live music and a round of B-52s. Then we crossed the bridge across the bank and went into a dance club for a while. This was followed by another hour or so of barhopping. I don’t know if it was dancing or the lack of sustenance or both, but the drinks in Beijing felt a lot stronger than in Shanghai and Jinan. 20 kwai mojitos? Yes, please!

-Saturday, 9.15-
Waking up early to catch a cab to the cultural flea market sucked! But it was worth it once my hangover went away. There was so much stuff there, and I really got to improve my bartering skills considering all the crap I bought. I spent around 1000 yuan there, which was a third of what I started with at the beginning of the trip. But I got so many cool gifts, as well as a couple things for myself. There was seriously so much stuff though. It took me at least a couple hours to look at everything before I decided to buy something.
I cabbed it back myself since I was late meeting up with my classmates I had planned to split a cab with. The driver was this really cute young woman, but unfortunately neither of us could speak each other’s language. We tried many times but failed, which made for an awfully quiet cab ride.
When I got back I was more tired than hungry, so I took a nap instead of eating lunch. We then had our project review. Everyone had some cool stuff, but it seems like after our extra work in Jinan we were all kinda burnt out and just wanted to enjoy Beijing for what it was. Afterwards we tried having dinner at this nice restaurant famous for its Peking Duck, but the wait was incredibly long and we had plans to go to the Beijing Opera teahouse afterwards, so we ended up eating at the restaurant next door. Luckily though, the Peking Duck they served at the restaurant we ate at was made at the restaurant we were originally going to eat at. What a coincidence! And man, was it good!
We went to the Teahouse show after dinner and watched a puppet show about the Monkey King, some Qin dynasty opera, oral mimicry, pot juggling, kung fu and all sorts of cool stuff. It would’ve been a lot more enjoyable if we understood the language, but nonetheless it was still cool. Came back to the hostel and spent the rest of the night packing.

-Sunday, 9.16-
Had breakfast at the hostel with the group of us that was leaving. Others were staying in China for a little longer. We said our goodbyes – it was really sad to leave so soon, after really just getting to know each other. But I was ready to come home. It was just a puzzle fitting all of our luggage into the bus. Quite a feat if you ask me.
When we got to the airport we already had trouble checking in, as a couple of us had luggage that exceeded the weight limit. So we went aside and rearranged our crap accordingly. Then when we finally got on the plane, we got delayed for 8 hours! That’s almost as long as the damn flight itself! Apparently, the initial delay was because the captain’s oxygen mask didn’t work during safety check, so we had to wait for that to get fixed. Then the airport asked the plane to move, but the captain didn’t want to, so that caused all sorts of complications between the flight crew and the government. Yes, the government. As if we weren’t already on the tarmac for long enough, we had to change flight crews. So finally after 8 hours of sitting in the plane we were able to depart, but not after 2 people got sick and 2 others got kicked off the plane for yelling at the crew. We were so incredibly late when we got to San Francisco I had to wait in line again at the baggage re-check to change my connecting flight because the entire plane had to reconnect their flights. But finally I’m home and that’s all that I care about at the moment. LONGEST SUNDAY EVER.

P.S.: while I was leaving to re-check my baggage after I got my new boarding pass, I saw Dominic Monaghan (Merry in LotR and Charlie in Lost) waiting at the end of the line. My guess is he arrived from the London flight. Cool!