Day 5, Power Tourism

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Originally uploaded by jrherron.

On our 5th Day in Beijing (Sunday if you're somehow trying to keep track) W and I split up to accomplish important Vacation Goals for ourselves. I wanted to go out and see some more sights, and W wanted to rest. And since it was just the 3 of us including Francie, we could actually do what we wanted. So Francie and I mapped out a route plan and got rolling around 9. Our first stop was the Lama Temple, a place Madhura had highly recommended we visit since we had tourist time. We took a cab directly there and spent an hour or so marveling at it's architectural details, Admiring the Giant Sandalwood Buddha, and choking on all the incense that was being offered up by worshipers there. Unfortunately no pictures were allowed of the giant Buddha, but you can find some here. Ready for more adventure and some fresh air we jumped on the subway ($.50 for both of us) to Tianamen Square and the Forbidden Palace. It was so busy in the square that I only got offered a Mao watch one time, I was (almost) disappointed.

I gave Francie the abbreviated tour, and we even found a part that costs an extra 10 RMB each that W and I missed on our first trip there. It had beautiful pieces of Jade and Gold artwork and the enormous official seals of the emperors. We took a quick cab ride back to the hotel to meet up with a rested and happy W and then were ready to Go check out the lake district and the old summer palace. We were starving by that point and decided to detour to the lake district first to find a little lunch. We found a great restaurant with some outdoor seating that served wonderful regional dishes served over a Sterno burner. It was a picture perfect day, so we rented a little electric boat and cruised around the lake for an hour.
We only got rammed by another boat once, and that was mostly because the wind was a little stronger than our piddly electric motor and the other boat's human peddle power. We continued our journey around the lake and were constantly accosted by peddi-cab drivers offering a Hutong tour. We found a cute little bar with comfy couches and settled in for a beer and a review of the maps. and then cruised off for a massage. I went along for the ride and sat comfortably in a chair watching tv and grabbing a little nap. I watched the most ridiculous state media coverage of the events in Lhasa, and have never been so angry at the TV before. I won't say too much about it here, since I do intend to go back again and would prefer not to be arrested in customs as a dissident the next time I visit.

Time for Reflection
Originally uploaded by jrherron

But some day ask me what the internal news coverage looked like. Oddly enough in the same news coverage there was news about the 5th anniversary of the Iraq war that I completely agreed with. It was crazy juxtaposition. We went back to the hotel and rested from a busy day, and to mentally prepare ourselves for our last day in town.

Beijing Day 4

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Originally uploaded by jrherron.

On our 4th and Final Day in Beijing we decided we should finally get over to Tianamen Square and the Forbidden Palace. We started with a quick breakfast with Betty before she took off, and then had to fugure out how to get our enourmous set of frames home, so we had someone look into shipping for us and then mozied out to the square. It wasn't quite like I'd pictured it once we were there, mostly because there weren't actually any tanks trying to mow me down like the only image of the square I'd ever seen before, and it was painfully cold when we first got there. We wandered around a bit and then went inside the forbidden palace to get inside the walls and out of the cold air. The inside of the palace is pretty cool except they were doing maintenance on some of the larger rooms so we couldn't go in. We debated for a long time about getting the audio self guided tour, but were glad we didn't when we saw how much was actually closed for the winter. I guess this means we'll just have to go back sometime closer to tourist season. After taking in the wonders of the palace, we wandered around a bit trying to find a reasonable cab. Sometimes the cabs right outside of tourist areas find any way they can to charge you too much, so your better off walking away a bit to find a regular cab that will use the meter and take you where you want to go. We had the concierge give us the address to a shipping place that shall not be named before we left for the morning so we went there next to see about shipping our stuff home. W is supposed to get a corporate discount, so we figured that would be the way to go. We could not get anyone there or on the phone to actually acknowledge the discount but at the very least they gave us a huge box until we figured out what to do. You should have seen me in the subway with this huge box on a train that was completely packed. When we were trying to get out at our station I had to wrestle like crazy to get it out and still only managed because I handed it around some guy that was standing in the door. So We stopped by the hotel decided we'd try to pad the frames and check them like regular luggage. That would require bubble wrap. I don't know about you, but I don't know the chinese word for bubble wrap, so once we got past that language barrier the conceierge recommended the post office as a place to get some, and we could take the subway or just walk. Well the directions we got sucked, and we couldn't find it. After an hour or so of wandering we got in a taxi showed him the word post office someone had written in chinese for us even he didn't take us to the right place. Frustrated tired and hungry we got on the subway went back to the hotel and paid someone to run out and get us bubble wrap and tape. It was not good use of a vacation day. After getting all our stuff wrapped up we went for happy hour and then a delicous korean dinner. I had the most wonderful beef dish that came on a hot flagstone. Tired but with full tummys we went back to the hotel where we scored a massage for W and a place to sleep for me.