Beijing Part Two: The Two Towers, the Stadium, and the Market

Day one in Beijing was a day of ancient and modern marvels. The morning was spent at the Forbidden City.  I forgot just how amazing it is there.

Mulan saved the Emperor here!  ...ish (this is Tower 1)

Soren's panoramic

Emily's panoramic

Ground view

Although the weather was cool, the rain didn't start until we left.  Btw...the purple coat you see me wearing and the orange and white jacket you see Soren wearing are part of the Nanjing Foreign Language School uniform.  They have the school seal on them. We weren't required to buy them...we just wanted to.

After the Forbidden City we ate lunch at a little hole in the wall (decent chow mien...decent chow fan).  We then got lost on the streets trying to find a metro entrance.  We wandered around for about an hour, asking random people where the subway was by showing them the Chinese characters for "subway" in one of our English-Chinese dictionaries.  We made it to the metro just as it started to rain.

We rode the metro up to the Olympic park.  It was pouring at this point.  Most of the girls didn't want to stick around (I can't blame them), but Maddie, Soren, and I decided to go into the Bird's Nest (the Olympic Stadium).  When I was at the Olympic park in 2009, we went inside the Water Cube.  It was cool, but then we didn't end up going into the Bird's Nest and I have regretted that ever since.  We paid the 50 yuan to go inside and I started to worry that maybe it wouldn't be as cool as I hoped.  As it turned out, I had worried in vain because it was AWESOME!  It was huge, and beautiful, and amazing, and...yeah.

The Bird's Nest

Inside the Bird's Nest

Little Mascots of the Olympics

Panoramic of inside the stadium (highest point)

The lights after dark

Bird's Nest + the Water Cube

The next morning we went to the Summer Palace.  This is another "must see" when you're in Beijing.  It's gorgeous and huge. We spent the entire morning and some of the afternoon there...and we didn't get to see everything.

On Suzhou market street

The Chinese people love stairs

This gentleman painted "Barker" for us in beautiful Chinese Calligraphy

Playing dress-up

Soren knows when to work, but he also knows when to be Idol.

The Summer Palace across the water (this is Tower 2)

The Palace from below

When we finished up at the Summer Palace we buzzed on down to the Pearl Market for some shopping.  The Pearl Market is so much fun.  The first floor is electronics, make-up, table cloths, and other odds and ends;  the second floor is shoes, clothes, and accessories; the third floor is pearls upon pearls, and souvenirs; the fourth and fifth floors are really expensive pearls.  We spent a lot of time (and money) there.

A glimpse of the Pearl floor

You can get just about anything made.

They have strands of jade as well.

The sales people at the Pearl Market sound something like this:
"Pretty lady, want to buy a pearl necklace? All real pearls, all real! Are you student? I give you good price!"
Others would say something more like:
"What do you need? I give you what you need!"
Or possibly:
"Buy Converse sneaker? Any color.  Or Toms.  All for good price." 
After they'd give me an outrageously high price for something, I'd give them my price and they'd say something like:
"No, no.  You are joking.  Give me your serious price.  These are real. Good quality. Give me your serious price."
Sometimes I'd barter with them, sometimes I'd just walk away.

One lady tried to sell me a Great Wall of China t-shirt for 140 yuan.  Soren had bought that same shirt for 20 yuan.  I told her my price was 20 and she said "Good bye."  I bought my shirt somewhere else.

When we got back to the hostel we all had show and tell.  The telling was just as important as the showing.  We all wanted to know whether or not we really did get good deals on things.  Overall, Soren and I got pretty good deals. 

To continue hearing the tales of the ILP adventurers, tune in for the final installment of the Beijing Trilogy, coming soon...