Day 123: Beijing, Hebei Province

Today we just got all of our things together before we got on the train. The train ride was really cool, we were averaging about 175mph, and the trees blurring past us. The sights were really interesting, hills and flat grounds covered in rice fields. One thing that was a little odd was all the neighborhoods. They were surrounded by high walls and barbed wire with guard posts and armed guards at every entrance. Who "lives" in there? I suspect they are in some sort of trouble and have been sent there to work or either really poor; something shady is going on there. These 'neighborhoods' followed us the whole way to Beijing. When there weren't these farms, you could see big factories and dozens and dozens of high rise apartments being built in the middle of no where.

Entering Beijing was pretty cool, I knew we were getting close when you could start to see a huge cluster of buildings in the horizon. Luckily Joseph has lived in this concrete jungle for three years; he and his friends will help me navigate this crazy place. We headed straight to one of Joseph's favorite bar/restaurants and grabbed a quick drink before we met up with one of his friends, Ben, who is from Louisville, Kentucky. After we dropped our bags off at Ben's apartment, we headed out to a great sushi place to met up with the rest of their friends. It was weird to be sitting at a table full of westerners who all spoke Chinese; I definitely felt like the odd man out since I could barely pronounce thank you correctly. 

Once we finished dinner and a couple bottles of saki, we made our way to a Goodbye party for one of the guys who has been living in Beijing. It was great to meet a bunch of Joseph's old friends. After the party, we headed to K TV. K TV is the name of karaoke bars in China; we rented out a huge VIP room and sung the night away!

As we made our way back home, we stopped off at this street vendor who was making hand made dumplings. They were so good!