This trip just keeps getting more interesting. After a fun time on Friday night, we awoke early Saturday for a full day of sight seeing. Our initial plans would take us to Tiananmen Square & the Forbidden City with the full group, and then we would wing it after that. Unfortunately, Beijing is notorious for its horrendous pollution, and on top of that, spring is the season for terrible sand storms. So the air quality on Saturday was quite bad, as evident from some of my pictures.
While we were able to make it out to Tiananmen square, it was very crowded, and by the time we made it through the first section of the Forbidden City, it was 10ish am and very crowded. That, added to the poor visibility from the smog/dust, led us to decide on saving the main section of the Forbidden City for another day.
After searching through the travel books, a small group of us decided on going to Wongfujing, a large shopping area. This section of town is quite modern, but on the way there, we were able to walk through some of the hutong, 胡同 (small streets throughout Beijing). We did a little bit of shopping around Wongfujing, and at lunch before heading southwards. As 4pm was approaching, we stumbled across one of the side streets off of Wongfujing. This area contained local snack food vendors, and some of us decided we had to try the real local cuisine. While some of the treats looked a little to exotic for my taste, 4 of us decided to try the roasted scorpions on a stick. I must say, they were not bad at all, and I will probably go back with some of the other members of our group to try them again.
We came back to our dorm and rested for a little while before going out with Yang (pronounced 'young') and Victor (his American name), two of the residents from Tiantan Hospital. They took us to some bars near the Embassy district. There were too many of us to fit comfortably in the first bar we went to, so we ended up strolling around and found a little Mexican bar/cantina (very strange, I know). But the place was really cool, and we were finally able to get cold beer! (chilled Tsintao for ~$1.50 a piece). Our friend Yang tried some quesadillas for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed them. We had chips & salsa, and then some guacamole, which was quite good. The cab ride home at 1:30 am was somewhat adventurous as our cab driver missed the exit and got lost for about 20 minutes.
Sunday morning, everyone slept in and we didn't get going until about 11am. Lindsey, Laura, Caraleigh & I decided to go to the Silk Street Market, which was probably a mistake for me (I forgot what it was like to shop with women...Lindsey apparently was just there to scout things out and is going back later to actually buy stuff). This was another market similar to the Pearl market, although the vendors were less aggressive. The area was very touristy and we decided to eat at a pizza place (bad, I know, but at least Laura got to eat again!). On the way to another store, we were accosted by pirated DVD salesmen, and one of our group bought a movie that is still in theaters in the US.
After a cup of coffee at Starbucks (they are taking over the world), Caraleigh & Laura went back to the dorms while Lindsey & I went to the Temple of Sun, 日壇, in Ri Tan Park. It was a nice little park, and one of the most interesting things was all of the public exercise equipment (we have seen this all over Beijing) that was being fully utilized by the locals. After wandering around for a bit, we decided to head back to the dorm to catch Mass with Dr. Strobel and some of our classmates.
Tomorrow we are heading to An Ding, a large psychiatric hospital. I should be able to post another update by Wednesday or Thursday. Hope everyone is doing well and I hope to hear back from you all.
再见,
Adam
7 comments:
You are eating way too many American foods in China but Martin is quite impressed by your scorpions on a stick. But he says, he needs pictures or it didn't happen. So, to prove your manhood, you must take pictures next time. He also says you have to eat a silkworm.
I am excited to hear about the psychiatric hospital! We are busy packing, I think your life is much more exciting right now. However, Martin occasionally yelps when he has conquered some home improvement project like taking off the countertops. That adds at least a little adventure to my day!
Umm are you insane?? Scorpions? Thats just gross. :) I enjoyed the video though. It was a nice touch to the blog.
And you went shopping with 3 women? I'm impressed Adam.
Alright...that video conveniently pans away from you just when you were supposedly biting into that scorpion. I am going to do a quick Andrew Zimmern search to find some more goodies for you to eat. Have you found Ming's yet?
Keep up the blog. I am trolling and not posting...I will do better. Whose camera are you using for the pics? I am probably going to buy a new one before we take off for Italy. Some of the pics look clearer than others, but I am pretty sure that might be smog effect.
Take care. Enjoy your shopping trips. You aren't eating adventurously unless you get food poisoning at least once. No more starbucks.
on further review I guess I have to admit that you did in fact eat the scorpion... It looked like it was a lot of crunchy exoskeleton. Those nasty brown grub looking things are silkworms no? that's what you should eat next.
I really enjoy reading your blog, and the video was great...did not realize the pollution was so bad over there- Why is Martin taking countertops off? when they move, they REALLY move..Love you, Mom
Hey Baby!! So happy to read about your trip, this whole blog thing is great! I guess we're going to have to be pretty crazy in Thailand to keep up with the scorpion eating and all :) Love you and can't wait to see your face. Em
Ok Adam, You ate scorpions which is awesome but I want to see you eat one of those huge beetle looking bugs...Thanks for sending me the link and I look forward to many more vicarious adventures.
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