I can't believe how fast this time in Shanghai has gone by. We began our last week of the program today, with finals on Friday and Saturday. Last week, for the 4th of July break, I took a trip to Beijing and Inner Mongolia. I'm just going to give a quick synopsis of the trip because I have lots of studying to do.Monday night- I took the train to Beijing by myself. I was in the sleeper car with a rock band "Twisted Machine" that had just played a show at one of the clubs I'd been to before in Shanghai - Bonbon. I lucked out being in the cabin with them - we listened to some of their band's music, which was actually pretty good, then listened to some of Liang's favs - Damian Marley, James Brown, and Gorillaz. It was pretty cool to have the same music tastes.
The train arrived Tuesday morning, and I did some walking around Beijing to get my bearings. I checked out Tianmen Square and the Dasilan Hutong before checking in to my sweet hostel (Y60). Beijing's hutongs were more of my previous picture of China before I arrived. Old crumbling buildings, lots of people hanging out in the narrow streets, hundreds of shops, and bike tours ready for hire. After the hostel, I took a tour of the underground network of tunnels constructed in case of nuclear attack, and had a guy pedal me around for a hutong tour. I ate dinner at Wangfujing snack street with hundreds of choices of the most....interesting....food I've ever seen - live scorpions on a stick waiting to be fried, starfish, crickets, and secadas just to name a few. Uncle Nick said it - "They eat anything there." At exactly sundown I watchced the guards march out of the Forbidden City into Tianmen to lower the flag and return it for the night's rest.
The next day the rest of the group showed up and we took a bus to the Badaling Great Wall. It was great - we jumped over the fence at the end of the reconstructed part and walked on 1000 years of blood and sweat. Forbidden city was sort of a let down - much of it was being renovated in preparation for the Olympics.
Temple of Heaven was a beautiful park inside the city. I made Y100 for climbing into a moat with 20 ft walls, I made it out eventually.
Friday night Eric and I took the tran to Hohhot - Inner Mongolia. From there we took a tour to the grasslands with our new friend Amy. The scenery was beautiful. The clear air was such a drastic change from the grime of Beijing.
Highlight of the trip - after watching a horse race and some Mongolian wrestiling, I got pulled into the arena! The guy was totally intimidated by for about .3 seconds, then proceeded me to throw me on the ground - haha the crowd liked it anyway.
We slept in a Yurt - sooo many spiders and bucks, ahh! (I wrapped myself up like a mummy and didn't move the whole night)We ate lots of lamb - doesn't compare to Baba Barb's with some mint jelly though :)
After the day at the grasslands, we went back to Hohhot and hung out with Amy and her boyfriend (both English majors luckily), and the showed us around to some local temples. It was a beautiful day in Hohhot and a nice release from the hustle bustle of the city.
So this is it...China's almost done for. I am however going to take the train to Tibet to see Chomolangma Shan (Everest). The 50 hours in a hard seat on the highest train in the world (the pump oxygen in through hoses) are going to be painful. Who knows what lies in store after that...Until next time...
