Day 128: Sleeper train to Hohhot, Inner Mongolia Province

Today is hopefully my last day in Beijing. I have a lot to do today and little time to do it. 

I started off by heading to the train station to see what the availability was to Inner Mongolia, China. I had the train number, time, and date already pulled up on my phone, ready for the ticket person. When I got to the station and got to the window to buy my ticket, the lady had no clue what I was saying nor what the phone read. The lady behind me spoke a little bit of English and read exactly what my phone and I both said K273. As soon as the Chinese lady said it the ticket lady knew it exactly and pulled it up on the computer; the computer read K273. How was that any different from what I said and my phone said, I wondered? The language barrier is pretty rough in China.

After I got my ticket for the sleeper train to Hohhot, I headed for Tiananmen Square. I assume you have at least head of the protests in June of 1989 where the Chinese man stood in front of the tank. The protests began in a peaceful manner by students in regards to the citizen's rights in China. Thousands of unarmed civilians were killed by the Chinese military. Currently, Chinese people do not know much about the massacre because the government worked very hard to suppress the pictures, footage, and eye witness accounts. That is why, just in the news, the US is criticizing China and pushing them to reveal more information. What is China's response? "stop interfering in China's internal affairs so as not to sabotage China-US relations" -- BBC. My friend Joseph said that while China is a communist country, you don't really see it; however, stuff like this happens. There are the three T's in China which you don't talk about: Tianamen, Tibet, and Taiwan. All of these are controversial issues. Could you imagine what would happen if we rolled tanks into NY during the Occupy Wall Street protests? Here we are getting upset seeing pepper spray sprayed at people... If you have the time, check out an ethnic group in China, the Uyghur. From what I have heard, the Chinese government is trying to repress these people, who live in China, because it is believed that these people were in China before the Chinese. The government infected many with HIV/AIDS. If you go to the western part of the country, where they live, you will see many army soldiers and bases to watch over these people. Keep in mind, this is what I have heard; I have had little time to check up on this. I also heard that in 2009, a group of them went on a rampage and attacked Chinese people with needles, infecting them with the HIV/AIDS that the Chinese government gave them. As you can imagine, it is hard to fact check these things, especially when I am using the Chinese governments's Internet. Here what I could find: http://onlineathens.com/stories/090509/nat_489800545.shtml

On a lighter note... I first went to Zhongshan Park right next to the Forbidden City. The park wasn't all that special; just a lot of flowers and a statue of a man named Mr. Sun ayat-sen.

(Chinese people love their umbrellas)

While there wasn't much to see aside from the wide array of flowers, it was a nice appetizer to the Forbidden City. Security was everywhere.

It was really interesting to be at such an iconic and controversial place.

(Mao Zedong)

The Forbidden City is massive; I knew it was going to take a lot of time to get through it all, so I did my best to hurry so I could see as much as possible today.

(It was too much for him!)

(View back towards the entrance)

(Notice the old and new paint. So old!)

(The throne that the emperor used to sit on)

(Where Mao Zedong used to stand and his view of Tienanmen Square. Also, this road is where the protestor stood up against the Chinese tank.)

Yes, it was scorching hot out there. It was all I could do to steal some shade whenever possible. After I made my way through the Forbidden City, I headed to Tienanmen Square. There isn't much to see there either, it is just a lot of concrete. However, there was something about passing through all the security and witnessing all the steps that this country is taking to make sure a protest does not stir up again.

After I walked through Tienanmen Square, I headed to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Park. I am eager to see the famed Bird Nest!

When I got there, I was surprised to see how much concrete there was. You could land a Boeing 787 in the center walkway. Why wouldn't you make this place more green and beautiful? Did a good job in showing off their Communism. I was also surprised to see that the Park is smack in the center of a populated area, apartments and businesses surrounded the Park. I can only imagine how overcrowded it was during the 2008 Games!

(The view from the Bird Nest)

I took my time and walked around before I headed to the Water Cube, which is where the Olympic swimming pool is. I bought a ticket to go inside and see the exhibit and the pool. When I got in, everything was closed. What is going on? I asked the lady at the front desk, and she informed me that the exhibit and the pool closes at 5:00pm, it is now 5:30pm. Why in the hell would they sell me a ticket to see nothing??? Needless to say, I was pretty pissed.

I made my way back to Joe's apartment to pack my things; now heading to Inner Mongolia and then Mongolia for the next leg of my trip. Very excited to be waving this concrete jungle goodbye! It is weird to leave Joseph, we have become such good friends in the past few weeks. He plans to move to Taiwan soon and continue teaching English and learning Mandarine. I know that we will meet again at some point in our lives. Maybe it will be when he visits the US or when the first of us gets married that will bring us back together. 

Only time will tell and anything is possible.

 

(The people in the Beijing metro)

Day 127: Beijing, Hebei Province

I got up and packed around 5:30 in the morning, remaining quite so the others could sleep. Still didn't get to catch any Zzz's that night. I was hoping to see an amazing sunrise, but it was very foggy outside.

Eventually, the rest if the group woke up and we began our trek to Mutianyu, which is the rebuilt touristy part of the wall 6 hours away. The trek started off tough, with a steep mountain with no stairs. We were required to climb up a mix between broken wall and jagged mountain rocks. I will admit, it was a little nerve rocking! 

Once we tackled this area we were on to beautiful sights.

It is so cool to see how the wall has aged as the centuries passed with the crumbling stone and over grown paths. It feels very rare to be walking these paths and it really put my mind pack hundreds of years to when Chinese soldiers would guard these walls against the Mongols; I felt like one of those soldiers.

Each watch tower was a great stopping point as they were at either the top or bottom of each mountain and no two were alike.

(Notice my foot in the bottom of the picture, long way down!)

As the day went on, the fog rolled in, it was amazing to see how different it was on each side of the wall. To the north, clear mountainous valleys, to the south, pure fog.

Once we saw our first tourist, we knew we were getting close to Mutianyu. Eventually we could see the rebuilt wall on the horizon.

While it was touristy, seeing the wall rebuilt was also an amazing sight.

It was so rewarding to be done with the trek! We wanted to take the slide back down the mountain but it was under construction, so we walked down; just when we thought it was over!

Once we got to the bottom, we were bombarded by shop vendors. And of course, all we wanted was a meal and it was all triple the price. We picked up some, relatively, cheap instant noodles and chowed down. After lunch, we went over to where the bus back to Beijing was and there, we were bombarded by guys trying to drive us back to Beijing, telling us that the bus wasn't running. I told the girls we should wait until the first bus is supposed to get here until we talk to those guys. Sure enough, the first bus arrived on time and we were on our way to Beijing.

When I returned back to Beijing, I headed back to Joseph's friend's, Joe's, apartment and slept the day away, after I showered of course!