Beijing Part 2

Saturday we were scheduled to visit the Forbidden City in the morning and the Summer Palace in the afternoon. Unfortunately, the rain on Saturday was even heavier than the day before. As our tour group rushed through the Forbidden City, we saw a sea of umbrellas more than an elaborate palace where the Emperors of China had resided for 400 years up until the early 1900s.

The rain let up only slightly in the afternoon as we went to the Summer Palace. This was the home to the Emperors during the hot summer months. The site is mostly taken up by a man-made lake and elaborate gardens and was supposed to be cooler than the Palace in the Forbidden City. The Summer Palace was an exact opposite of the Forbidden City. Within the Forbidden City, there are no trees and the courtyards are paved with 15 layers of stones to protect the Emperor from assassins. The architecture and size of the city are impressive and the stone work very detailed, but also a bit austere with no greenery around.

The Summer Palace would really be a nice place to spend an afternoon when it is not raining, but unfortunately we did not have that luxury. Luckily between our rain jackets and umbrellas, we were able to keep drier than most and still enjoyed our walk around the Palace grounds.

After our time at the Summer Palace, our group trip to Beijing was officially over, but Janet and I (and many others) decided to spend an extra night in the city and had booked a hotel near the downtown area. The rooms were not nearly as nice as the TianTan Hotel, but still more enjoyable than the dorms. However, it seemed that few cab drivers knew how to get there and it proved to be a bit of an ordeal to finally get to the hotel.

The next day, we were rewarded for our trouble in getting to the hotel with a beautiful, sunny day. First thing, we wanted to go to the train station to book tickets back to Tianjin for that evening. With a little help from a local who spoke English very well, we were able to navigate the bus lines to the train station, where we were able to purchase tickets using our beginner Chinese. Deciding to take advantage of a nice day in Beijing, we went back to Tiananmen Square to walk around the downtown area for a while.

After a reassuring day of being able to navigate in the city by ourselves, we decided a celebratory meal at McDonald's was in store. Two double cheeseburger combo meals later (one for each of us) it was over to the station to catch our train home. The ride back to Tianjin took only about an hour and cost 42 yuan, or about $5-6. Once we got off the trains, there was chaos. There were hundreds of cabs waiting at the station with drivers shouting out "Hay-loo." Many of the cars seeming a bit shady, we decided to walk over to a street or two before catching a cab. Our ride back to the University cost 15 Yuan. We found out that the students who had caught cabs right at the station ended up paying about 40 Yuan.

Overall it was a good weekend in Beijing, though the weather on Saturday was a bit disappointing. The walk along the Great Wall alone was worth the time in the rain the rest of the time and the great weather on Sunday was an added bonus.

I wanted to leave a few parting notes on fast food in China...

The other night we were walking past a really nice looking restaurant and I was interested to find out what it was, when we got to the door, we were greeted with a large "Pizza Hut" sign.

Also, KFC is quite popular in China despite the fact that most people here could not actually point out the state of Kentucky on a map. In Beijing, you can't go more than a couple of blocks without seeing the Colonel's face smiling down on you. There is something both reassuring and quite funny about seeing him on every other street corner.

Finally, McDonald's most have saved tens of thousands of Americans abroad who at some point were desperate for a taste of something familiar. Though there are some different items on the menu, the double cheeseburger and french fries at McDonald's here taste just the same as they do at any Tallahassee McDonald's.