(1) Beidaihe
Back when the sun still shone pleasantly and warmly over northern China and the weather was kind to the land’s inhabitants, our school decided to treat its teachers to a trip out east to the coast, to Beihaihe and Shanhaiguan, where the Great Wall meets the Bohai Sea. A map is here. I didn't know about it, either.
There were perhaps twenty brave souls who decided to venture on this journey, I being one of them. We set out on Saturday morning, September 24th, and drove until we hit paydirt: some hotel next to the beach. The beach was probably the most normal beach I have ever seen (and I spent fifteen years in the land of ten thousand lakes). Here is Dan and I ankle-deep in the surf:
It was at that moment – when Dan and I rolled up the pants and none of the others in our group did – that I truly noticed how young and American Dan and I were compared to everyone else on the trip. Hmm. Anyway, we perused around it, walked here and there, and then go back on the bus and headed to some park further down the coast. There we were sort of scattered about when I walked by this fenced-in statue that was overrun with pigeons. I made the fatal error of letting my gaze rest there just a bit too long, sort of like when Hilary let her glance linger a bit too longer on Sunshine – and suddenly the enclosure’s overseer (what a job that must be) was coercing me into the trap, loading me with pigeon food, and stopping other tourists to laugh at me. No joke, there have to be at least a thousand pictures in existence of that ten-minute span of my life. Here are a couple:
After I cleaned the crap off myself (haha…just kidding)(I mean, I didn’t clean it off), we moved on and scaled some hill that looked out over the landscape. Now I was hoping that as we left the smog of Beijing, the air would be pristine and clear, but that was a silly thought; the atmospheric conditions were still not very good. Nonetheless, the view was pretty cool, and we bummed around the top of the hill for a spell. Boo-yah:
After said spell was over, our bus took us back to home base, where we ate at the same restaurant as what appeared to be some large wedding rehearsal dinner. The weddingers decided they wanted to celebrate via karaoke, so they did that while we ate our seafood cuisine, but then when a bunch of them left, so different members of our group ravaged the sparse English section of the karaoke’s song options. I know that somewhere there is a video of all the male tourists rockin’ out some Guns ‘n’ Roses song with an amused restaurant staff looking on. Boom.
The next morning our bus relocated us to Shanhaiguan, which had everything a good Chinese tourist spot should have. We walked around for a while, climbed a wall that could have been the Great Wall, saw a camel, and then walked back to the bus. Here are the places we were:
But the day was not over. No. The bus spilled us out at the easternmost point of the Great Wall, right where it meets the waters of the Bohai Sea. This was also a pretty touristy stop, but it was cool nonetheless:
Then we ate some food and got back on the bus and drove back to Beijing. It was a decent time, though other than Yitao and I, and perhaps the trip organizer, our HR chieftain, everyone on the excursion was in some sort of romantic relationship with someone else on the excursion. Other than that, a fine trip, a fine trip indeed.
(2) Jingshan Park
Beijing is a big square. In the middle of the big square is all the important crap: Tiananmen Triangle, The Super Accessible City, etc. Just north of The Super Accessible City, overlooking its north entrance, is a hilly park known as Jingshan. Each of the tens of thousands times (read: two, but two times is like going through any other palace complex ten thousand times) I have been at the Forbidden City, I have exited and seen Jingshan Park and thought to myself, “I want that.” So on the first of October or so, Dawna and I climbed the hill and owned it. A few days later, I stupidly hadn’t planned to go anywhere for the National Holiday, so as I sat idly around my apartment, I made this video. I do not claim it to be of a high quality, and maybe it will not even load for you; such is my faith in the tech involved. Meh:
Three sidenotes: (1) "I do not in any way own any rights to the song in this video." (2) I don’t know what is going on in America right now, but said song in said video is hot here among the youth. I would not mention this except I had this song when it came out on “Sorry for Party Rocking” in June, months ago, and I could have told you it was, well, a song that was going to be a hit (I hesitate to praise the song itself). It’s one of those. (3) At Beijing No. 94, I was asking fools where I should go in Beijing to enjoy the city, and some girl said that I should go to Jingshan Park and watch the sun set there, and I think I need to. Cause it’s a great idea.
(3) Chongwenmen
South of the city’s current center lies the remains of the wall that surrounded the inner city of Beijing quite a long spell ago. The wall is not overly impressive, but there is a nice tract of land next to it, and it makes for a nice li’l walk. I conquered said walk back over the previously mentioned National Holiday, which was between October 1st and 5th. A relaxing time.
At the eastern end is a small museum that provides info on the wall, its history, and some art. There were also some people there flying kites insanely high, which happens here. There was also some super cute woman there with her dad, a statement by which you can judge the excitement level on this excursion.
Nonetheless, the walk was, based on my poor math skills, at least six or seven times better than sitting in my apartment doing nothing.
(4) Yuan Dynasty Relics Park
Another dreary day of National Holiday nothingness found me walking from Shaoyaoju Station on Line 13 all the way to Beitucheng Station on Line 10, which is approximately four kilometers. The “park,” as my tourist map indicated, was this long strip of green running east-west through northeastern Beijing. There were not a ton of relics, as the name suggested there would be, but there was either plenty to look at or calm nothingness to enjoy.
One thing that I have loved about Beijing has been the canals enveloped by willows. There’s been no equivalent in my life to date. Maybe it’s the water. Maybe it’s the green in the otherwise-drab concrete landscape. Maybe I should get a job on a ship or protecting the Amazon rain forest. But, at any rate, I enjoy walking along these watery paths.
Find and post this Guns 'n' Roses video. Now.
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