Beijing Tour Day 5

Today began promptly at 6:30 am, we were set to meet everyone down in the lobby by 8 am. The group for today consisted of Brennan, Jose, Cassidy, Crystal, Sean, Cong and myself. First stop on the list was Mao’s Mausoleum. For those of you who don’t know, after his death Mao’s body was preserved and put on display in Tiananmen square. Many Chinese people go and see the body as a sign of respect. We split into two groups out of necessity for bag watching. Since the terrorist attack on Tiananmen square three months ago security is way stricter, as such you can’t bring anything with you except a valid ID. Seeing Mao’s body was very strange for me. He changed the face of China as the world knows it and here was his body for everyone to see. It was a mildly surreal experience, his body was draped in the tradition red communist flag and it was strangely silent in a room full of people. But I can say I have seen Mao Zedong.

    After the second group made it through we had a little bit of fun playing unicorn for the people of Tiananmen square. Lots of people posing with us and taking pictures. One man had a particularly fantastic smile at all of us getting a picture with him. We then got to experience the Beijing subway (BRT). I think we all made Cong nervous, he was incredibly concerned we would get left behind. Nothing bad happened and we eventually made it to JingShan Park. This park has a small hill that overlooks the forbidden city, pretty much all of Beijing. Unfortunately the air quality today was the worst I have ever experienced in my life. Beijing’s air is really difficult to breathe. The park surround the viewpoint was lovely. Quiet, peaceful people just living their lives and enjoying the nature inside the city. We found an area where people were dancing so Jose and I danced with these adorable twin girls, laughs were had by all. We then headed out to find a noodle shop for lunch. Cong then took us on a long walking adventure to find a hutong, or small street. On it are little shops, and local culture as Cong put it. It was interesting, reminded me of the night markets of Taiwan. Though these places were more established than some of the places  in Taipei. It was interesting to see a more local area instead of touristy.

    After lunch we took off for the Lama Temple, which is the largest Tibetan Buddhist temple outside of Tibet. It was incredibly peaceful and beautiful. We spent out time wandering and just taking in the architecture and the Buddhas. One of the large buddhas was carved from a single tree and was over 3 stories tall, it was impressive. Everyone by this point was incredibly tired due to the amount of walking we had done, so we took a break in a coffee shop for an hour or so. I really enjoy this particular bunch of people, they are marvelous. We then headed out to Beijing University, the Harvard of China. This was a long journey and turned out to be way more difficult than necessary. Cong really wanted to do it though and since we had essentially kidnapped him for the day we just rolled with it. It took us nearly an hour to escape the University which was a mini city unto itself, with a wall all the way.

    Dinner ended up being pretty good, everyone was so tired it quickly descended in hysterical laughing fits about strange things. Walking back was fairly difficult, as we were so tired. Everyone was almost silent the whole trip. When we arrived back to Tiananmen square all we said was “We are home!”. Never thought I would say that about Tiananmen. Tomorrow we leave for Chengdu at 8 am. I look forward to arriving at my real home in China. Onward to my next destination.