We arrived in Beijing around 7AM and ate breakfast at a Roast Duck Shop. Breakfast was a white rice roll, some vegetables, a dumpling-like roll, and an egg; the typical Chinese breakfast. It’s a rather pathetic meal, actually. I’d kill for some cold cereal and milk.
After breakfast, we bought umbrellas from street vendors (who bombarded us the moment we left the restaurant) because it was rainy and cold. As far as I can remember, this was the first real rain I’d seen in China. I had expected it to be warm and humid like Indiana rain, but this rain was freezing. My head teachers had told me that it was supposed to be warm, so I was underdressed with pants, a T-shirt, and no jacket or coat. The umbrella helped to keep me dry and therefore warmer, but the umbrella was a sad excuse for anything. It was rusty and had a broken arm—worst 15 yuan I’ve ever spent.
Nevertheless, I simply laughed because hey, I’m in China. And after a short walk from the restaurant, I was in Tiananmen Square. Tiananmen Square is, of course, the site of the catastrophe that killed 20,000 people in 1987 (I believe that is the date) when the people rebelled against the Chinese government. The Square is a huge stone “square” boxed in by the Museum of China, the Hall of People, some other building, and the Forbidden City. There are statues and red and yellow flowers (to complement the Chinese flag colors) and lots of vendors. We took a group picture from Tiananmen in front of the wall of the Forbidden City.
Our tour guides had never been given English names, so we named them Walle and Benny. Because we always asked, “Where’s Walle?” we decided his full name is Waldo and his nickname is Walle. Benny was a nice guy, but very business-like. Walle always had lots of energy and loved to participate in our American activities and tried to learn as much English as possible. He was also somewhat of a shweye kuh (cute boy), so we all adored him.
The Forbidden City is magnificent, and gigantic. We walked through stone courtyard after stone courtyard; up countless stairs; through ornately carved archways; over lopsided, crumbling cobblestones; looked into vast halls that had columns and molding decorated with bright yellows, reds, blues, greens, and gold. Gold dragons slithered over the ceilings, guarding ornate thrones and gold burning pots. Outside, the roofs curved in the traditional Chinese architectural style, and carvings of various animals prowled on the corners; the more animals on the roof, the more important the building. Nine is the highest regarded number (in case you were wondering, eight means wealth and is a lucky number; 4 means death and is the unluckiest number; nine is the imperial number, you could say).
I was surprised, however, at the lack of restoration on the City. Of course, the City is thousands of years old, but since it is such a huge tourist attraction, I had assumed the Chinese would restore and keep up the quality of the City. Perhaps they want to retain the ancient feel of the City, but most of the paint was faded and wearing off, the cobblestones were crumbling, and the wood was worn and obviously ancient.
Walking around the Forbidden City, I felt as if I had stepped back into time, or even into a movie, like Mulan. It was surreal and awe-inspiring. The Imperial Gardens were breathtakingly beautiful, with traditional statues and unusual Chinese plants and Chinese-style gazebos.
Inside the souvenir shops, there were beautiful brush paintings for sale and traditional dresses. I want some, but I figured I’d find better prices at the night markets or the pearl market in downtown Beijing.
On our way out of the Forbidden City, we witnessed a shocking sight: four Chinese people, two male and two female, were going at it in a full-on fist fight. Umbrellas were also used as weapons. Of course, we didn’t know what had caused this fight, but we knew better than to get involved. (We could be interrogated and/or arrested.) What also surprised me was that there were security guards literally a yard away, but they did nothing but direct pedestrian traffic around the fight—super bizarre. By the time the fight wound down, a woman and a man lay (apparently) unconscious on the sidewalk.
I wanted to help, but we rushed away from the scene before the police arrived to avoid any further conflict. It was the first time I’ve ever seen a fist fight in person.
Right after that, we went to a street market. The street vendors are super pushy here, but they speak good English. There was a vendor selling seahorses, star fish, and scorpions on a stick. The scorpions were still wriggling, which was a most disgusting sight. Another vendor had wriggling grubs.
I bought a stuffed panda bear: he’s super fat and kind of flat, like a hamburger. I named him Pangzi (PAHNG-zhuh), which means “fatties” in Mandarin. I would have named him simply fatty, but that’s pangde (PAHNG-duh) and it sounds too close to panda. I justify my decision by the fact that he is fat enough for two pandas. He’s so freaking adorable he makes me happy.
We then checked into our hotel, which was a dodgy hole in the wall from the outside, but decent enough on the inside. There were two beds per room, a TV, and a ¾ bathroom. The beds were box springs, which were soft compared to our boards back in Weihai. (Sad, huh?)
That night, we went to the silk and pearl market, a gigantic indoor market filled with vendors and their wares. There were ties, traditional dresses, shirts, jackets, shoes, jewelry, trinkets, bags, bedding, coats, Buddha paraphernalia, and pretty much anything else you can imagine. My favorites were the real fresh water pearls and the real silk.
We ate Subway for dinner, and it was ridiculously delicious. I do love me some American food.
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