I ended up singing the One Night in Beijing chorus in English throughout the entire summer, altering it to whatever adventure I was currently on.. "One Night in Yongshou" to "One Night in Shanghai" and "One Night in Sheko."
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| Monument to the People's Heros at Tiananmen Square |
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| Forbidden City |
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| Tiananmen Gate to the Forbidden City |
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| Great Hall of the People, the line wrapped all the way around the entire square |
Beijing was incredible. Overwhelming really, with the gigantic crowds and ridiculously long history... Three days did not do this historic capital justice. I recall students on the trip stressing how Shanghai was so much cooler than Beijing-- maybe the nightlife sure (I didn't go out in Shanghai), but Beijing had so much more to see and I felt that I had so much to learn in this great city as well.
On the bus ride from the airport to our hostel I remember driving on streets lined with the red chinese lanterns and lots of table outside the restaurants that probably served peking duck. It was midnight and the tables were filled. The glow of the lanterns lit up the streets and it all felt slightly surreal-- it was beautiful.
The first day we went to Tiananmen Square (we couldn't go to Mao's memorial museum building because we were wearing flip-flops), a few important gardens and gates, and the Forbidden City.Everything has obviously been repainted and reinforced many times, but the colors really amazing. Red, green, blue paints decorated the gates and overhands with gold detailing and writing. I do find Mao's portrait a bit creepy. He is up there, overseeing Tiananmen Square, his eyes a gate into the Forbidden City. (well really a gate into the bigger plaza you must walk through before you even get to the entrance of the Forbidden City--again, enormous spaces everywhere.)
The Forbidden City is HUGE. I want to say its the size of Moraga (haha). There is no way someone could walk through every single part of the city--and there is just so many open spaces. Val, Vera, Chloe and I would try to imagine soldiers, troops, close officials, filling the open spaced in their perfected rows. There was just so much freaking history too. I get overwhelmed thinking about it, and how much I don't even understand or know. The Dynasties are an absolutely fascinating time period in history and I realized how my world history courses were cheating China by only having 2-3 chapters on those time periods.
So I'm embarrassed to publicly admit that I participated in this "dress up like a Chinese emperor" tourist ordeal, but I got suckered into it and I told myself that they had these sorts of 'take pictures in costume' set-ups all over China so I needed to do it once for the sake of being in China and experiencing everything possible. (Okay, totally lame excuse I just don't really know how to justify this one) I can say, however, that the Chinese visitors really enjoyed seeing me dressed up and took more pictures of me than of themselves in the outfits. (Or asked us to be in the pictures with them.. Did I mention this happened every day, multiple times a day, to the point where I couldn't even smile anymore?) These pictures above were up at the very top of a tower that oversees the entire Forbidden City.
We went out one night to the bars and clubs that wrap around this big lake and after walking around a couple times finally ended up at this tiny place that had marijuana leaves and jamaican flags all over it. I call that marketing... to the foreigner that has been deprived of marijuana due to the overly strict policy towards drugs in China. (Although apparently the expats in Sheko find ways around Chinese officials) But the reason we decided to stay at this place in particular was because there was live music and it was spanish classics! The live music was great spanish dancing music, and although there was no dance floor or anyone dancing, we both knew it would get us warmed up. Vera is a professional salsa dancer, so she breathes dance and will do anything to have the opportunity to show off her moves to no one in particular. We bought ourselves some drinks and a couple hours later we were the life of the place.. dancing in the cramped aisle way and really just truly enjoying ourselves. I thought the band was from Colombia or some South American country, but they were chinese! I didn't believe them for awhile until finally one explained that there were a tiny ethnic minority and I remembered hearing about a bunch of minority populations throughout Beijing. It really did throw me off because none of them really looked Chinese at all-- more Latin American if anything. |
| I think this Mao-rendition of Warhol is great. |
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| we danced all night long |
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