Where do I begin? How about with some background.
We had the bonus of being the last of about a dozen visitors, plus Jen and Matt just got back from their own trans-Pacific excursion. With all that experience under their belt, by the time we got there, these guys had it down to a science. They had a map all outlined for us of where we should go and how to get there, and they also had a nice list of some less-touristy options so we could get a more legitimate experience (like walking through hutongs, or borrowing their bikes to ride to a nearby park in the morning so we could watch the locals do tai chi, or teaching us how to be pedestrians in Beijing).
When we arrived, they had a "hospitality set” provided on arrival with all the necessities - snacks, Purell, tissues (since most of the public restrooms didn't have any), and a surgical mask to keep the pollution away. We used every single item. They even knew what time we’d get tired and how to help us to sleep through the night. And if sleep didn’t come? No problem! They've got a stash of movies to pass the late-night hours. Seriously, they thought of everything. “What’s that, Abby? You didn’t bring a coat? Here’s mine. I've also got a few hats lying around if you need one.” Seriously.
They even put in a good word to get some fantastic weather for us. Typically, Beijing air is pretty nasty (hence the surgical mask). You don't really see blue skies very often because there's always a heavy haze of pollution. However, while we were in town, it was clear, blue, and not a cloud (or pollution) in the sky. And that was not just one day, but several. Thanks guys, for special ordering that one up (they even managed to arrange for some snow for us on the Great Wall!).
We did a lot of our exploring while Jen and Matt were at work, since they’ve already seen everything with their last slew of visitors. Then they’d come play with us after work, make sure we were well fed, and indulge in our need to take pictures of cool places at sunset.
Our time in Beijing was limited, so we packed in as much as we could. Here are some of the things we saw:
The Forbidden City - be warned, it really is as big as a city. The name does not lie. And it was packed with tourists from all over China.
The Temple of Heaven (the first of many places where a random stranger asked to have their picture taken with us).
While we were walking around this place, we heard singing. We followed the sound until we found this. It made the whole day happier.
The Olympic Park (home of the best Engrish translations I found anywhere)
And of course, the Great Wall. Next time you visit this place, might I recommend visiting MuTianYu, not Badaling. Not only do you get to avoid the masses of tourists, but you can also hike to the place where the wall stops being restored and starts crumbling with all the trees growing through the floor, and you get to finish off the day with a toboggan ride!
I just have to pause to give some props to Beijing, as a former metro commuter and appreciator of a good, quality metro system. Their metro is seriously amazing. It’s clean, it’s expansive (and growing all the time), the directions are clear, the metro comes frequently, they actually seem equipped to handle the volume (and there’s a LOT of volume), I always know where I am and how many stops there are before mine, they have English translations for everything…every time I thought I had a potential piece of criticism (“it would be really nice if they had…”), I would soon find the thing that I was wishing for and realize that they really had thought of everything. Except maybe handicap access. Could use a little work there, Beijing. But for a non-handicapped person, they really hit it out of the park. I’m just saying.
Eating in China is kind of an adventure. We’re adventurous eaters, so we weren’t worried about coming across food we wouldn’t eat…but we weren’t really prepared for how difficult it was to find a bite to eat when you can’t speak the language or read the characters. (That, and I have trust issues when it comes to street food, so we had to stick to restaurants.) We tried going with the ones that actually said “Restaurant” in English on the sign, but it turns out that this doesn’t always guarantee the menu will be in English. So, basically we had to stick to restaurants that had pictures on their menus. Aaaaand it turns out, pictures aren’t always what they seem.
A classic example. We ordered what looked like a chicken dish, green beans, and some more chicken with green onions. Here’s what it actually is: fried squid, leeks, mushrooms, and I don’t even know what’s inside those little empanada-looking things, but it’s definitely not the “standard” ingredients.
Given that, we were always happy at the end of the day when Jen and Matt took us out to their favorite places – which were always amazing.
One night when we were out enjoying some of the culinary delights at Bellagio, the power went out at the restaurant. Did they send everyone home? Nope! They just brought out some candles and kept right on serving us our food.
There was one place that was particularly memorable. The main thing they serve there is dumplings – which we ordered, in copious amounts and varieties. But we also got some appetizers that were especially delicious. In fact, we loved this place so much that when we had a layover in Beijing again at the end of our trip, we used what little time we had to go BACK so we could eat the exact same food again. And also to take pictures, since we were too busy eating last time to document any of the goodness.
Also when we went back, we wanted to visit the Summer Palace. It's a bit outside of town and we ran out of time to see it the first time around. But it was okay, because Spring came while we were away and all the trees and flowers were now in full bloom! So we navigated our cab driver and were pretty proud of ourselves when we finally succeeded in communicating our desired destination. (In case you wondered, communication when you can't speak or read is incredibly difficult.) In any case, we rolled up to the park and wasted no time in trying to hunt down our desired destinations - some gorgeous buildings and bridges. But...no matter how hard we tried with the map we purchased, we just couldn't seem to find any of these vistas. It wasn't until time was growing urgently short that we realized that that there was no palace on our map, and we weren't at the Summer Palace. We were at some garden nearby with a bunch of ruins. We've yet to figure out exactly where we ended up. Too bad we couldn't read the signs at the entrance.
Tragic? A bit. Funny? Yes, that too.
Thanks China and Jen and Matt!
Stay tuned for the next chapter, where we go from 40 degrees Fahrenheit to 40 degrees Celsius!
So, back in April, the Mr. had been working some crazy long hours for the past 6 months or so. I've been training new people for about that long and basically doing two people's jobs during the day, so I haven't really been allowed to take any days off besides the bare minimum at Christmas. At night I've been taking CFP prep classes, plus everything at work was especially hectic during tax season.
We needed to escape.
We needed to escape.
So here's what we did - to be posted in installments, or else I'll never get this posted ever.
Part 1: We visited some friends in Beijing.
Our friends from DC, Jen and Matt, are living in Beijing because Matt is a diplomat there. I've wanted to visit them ever since they moved to China, but I never really thought I'd have an opportunity. They work at the US Embassy, so we got to stay on the compound with them. I took some notes while we were there so we could write a guest post on their blog about what it's like to stay at Chez Pierson, so I'm just going to borrow heavily from that.
Our friends from DC, Jen and Matt, are living in Beijing because Matt is a diplomat there. I've wanted to visit them ever since they moved to China, but I never really thought I'd have an opportunity. They work at the US Embassy, so we got to stay on the compound with them. I took some notes while we were there so we could write a guest post on their blog about what it's like to stay at Chez Pierson, so I'm just going to borrow heavily from that.
We had the bonus of being the last of about a dozen visitors, plus Jen and Matt just got back from their own trans-Pacific excursion. With all that experience under their belt, by the time we got there, these guys had it down to a science. They had a map all outlined for us of where we should go and how to get there, and they also had a nice list of some less-touristy options so we could get a more legitimate experience (like walking through hutongs, or borrowing their bikes to ride to a nearby park in the morning so we could watch the locals do tai chi, or teaching us how to be pedestrians in Beijing).
When we arrived, they had a "hospitality set” provided on arrival with all the necessities - snacks, Purell, tissues (since most of the public restrooms didn't have any), and a surgical mask to keep the pollution away. We used every single item. They even knew what time we’d get tired and how to help us to sleep through the night. And if sleep didn’t come? No problem! They've got a stash of movies to pass the late-night hours. Seriously, they thought of everything. “What’s that, Abby? You didn’t bring a coat? Here’s mine. I've also got a few hats lying around if you need one.” Seriously.
They even put in a good word to get some fantastic weather for us. Typically, Beijing air is pretty nasty (hence the surgical mask). You don't really see blue skies very often because there's always a heavy haze of pollution. However, while we were in town, it was clear, blue, and not a cloud (or pollution) in the sky. And that was not just one day, but several. Thanks guys, for special ordering that one up (they even managed to arrange for some snow for us on the Great Wall!).
We did a lot of our exploring while Jen and Matt were at work, since they’ve already seen everything with their last slew of visitors. Then they’d come play with us after work, make sure we were well fed, and indulge in our need to take pictures of cool places at sunset.
Our time in Beijing was limited, so we packed in as much as we could. Here are some of the things we saw:
The Forbidden City - be warned, it really is as big as a city. The name does not lie. And it was packed with tourists from all over China.
The Temple of Heaven (the first of many places where a random stranger asked to have their picture taken with us).
While we were walking around this place, we heard singing. We followed the sound until we found this. It made the whole day happier.
The Olympic Park (home of the best Engrish translations I found anywhere)
And of course, the Great Wall. Next time you visit this place, might I recommend visiting MuTianYu, not Badaling. Not only do you get to avoid the masses of tourists, but you can also hike to the place where the wall stops being restored and starts crumbling with all the trees growing through the floor, and you get to finish off the day with a toboggan ride!
I just have to pause to give some props to Beijing, as a former metro commuter and appreciator of a good, quality metro system. Their metro is seriously amazing. It’s clean, it’s expansive (and growing all the time), the directions are clear, the metro comes frequently, they actually seem equipped to handle the volume (and there’s a LOT of volume), I always know where I am and how many stops there are before mine, they have English translations for everything…every time I thought I had a potential piece of criticism (“it would be really nice if they had…”), I would soon find the thing that I was wishing for and realize that they really had thought of everything. Except maybe handicap access. Could use a little work there, Beijing. But for a non-handicapped person, they really hit it out of the park. I’m just saying.
Eating in China is kind of an adventure. We’re adventurous eaters, so we weren’t worried about coming across food we wouldn’t eat…but we weren’t really prepared for how difficult it was to find a bite to eat when you can’t speak the language or read the characters. (That, and I have trust issues when it comes to street food, so we had to stick to restaurants.) We tried going with the ones that actually said “Restaurant” in English on the sign, but it turns out that this doesn’t always guarantee the menu will be in English. So, basically we had to stick to restaurants that had pictures on their menus. Aaaaand it turns out, pictures aren’t always what they seem.
A classic example. We ordered what looked like a chicken dish, green beans, and some more chicken with green onions. Here’s what it actually is: fried squid, leeks, mushrooms, and I don’t even know what’s inside those little empanada-looking things, but it’s definitely not the “standard” ingredients.
Given that, we were always happy at the end of the day when Jen and Matt took us out to their favorite places – which were always amazing.
One night when we were out enjoying some of the culinary delights at Bellagio, the power went out at the restaurant. Did they send everyone home? Nope! They just brought out some candles and kept right on serving us our food.
There was one place that was particularly memorable. The main thing they serve there is dumplings – which we ordered, in copious amounts and varieties. But we also got some appetizers that were especially delicious. In fact, we loved this place so much that when we had a layover in Beijing again at the end of our trip, we used what little time we had to go BACK so we could eat the exact same food again. And also to take pictures, since we were too busy eating last time to document any of the goodness.
Also when we went back, we wanted to visit the Summer Palace. It's a bit outside of town and we ran out of time to see it the first time around. But it was okay, because Spring came while we were away and all the trees and flowers were now in full bloom! So we navigated our cab driver and were pretty proud of ourselves when we finally succeeded in communicating our desired destination. (In case you wondered, communication when you can't speak or read is incredibly difficult.) In any case, we rolled up to the park and wasted no time in trying to hunt down our desired destinations - some gorgeous buildings and bridges. But...no matter how hard we tried with the map we purchased, we just couldn't seem to find any of these vistas. It wasn't until time was growing urgently short that we realized that that there was no palace on our map, and we weren't at the Summer Palace. We were at some garden nearby with a bunch of ruins. We've yet to figure out exactly where we ended up. Too bad we couldn't read the signs at the entrance.
Tragic? A bit. Funny? Yes, that too.
Thanks China and Jen and Matt!
