Dear friends,
On the third day I was in Beijing, the weather was still cold, but my friends and I were still able to go out and see the Olympic Bird's Nest and Water Cube. You can't access the Olympic Arena with a taxi; you can only access the area with the metro or subway. When you get to the arena, you can walk to both the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube. It's very beautiful and there's even little lights along the path that match the Bird's Nest design. See picture below:

Little bird's nest lights that dot the path to the Olympic Bird's Nest

We didn't go inside because you had to pay and I think seeing the outside was sufficient.

You can find more pictures here: China Photo Set 2!

Dear friends,
On my second day in Beijing, my friends and I went to the Forbidden City. It was so incredibly cold! At first I thought it was me, who just came from Taiwan where the weather is about 20 degrees Celsius, but when I checked the news, it was the coldest time of the year in Beijing; the temperature was -7 degrees Celsius and the windchill was -17 degrees Celsius (All below 20 degrees Fahrenheit)! Can you believe it?!

Two other Fulbrighters and I (Billy & Kate) were so cold, we had to find indoor museums or gift shops in the Forbidden City to warm up. We felt rather ridiculous, but everyone was doing that. Because it was so cold, there were not that many people at the Forbidden City. You'll see in this photo album, China Photo Set 1, that there's virtually nobody at this tourist attraction.

See more pictures here!

Dear friends,
I'm in Beijing right now trying to upload photos of some of the recent activities I've done like go to the Forbidden City, but the Chinese government has placed certain restrictions on uploads. They will not let me upload any pictures onto my website or onto Picasa, Google's Photo Organizer. Very frustrating indeed because now you will only get to read my stories with no pictures! Censorship in China , especially on the Internet, makes communication very difficult. Although I am not a journalist, I am a person who likes to keep my family and friends updated so I can still understand the frustration of an indefinite interruption in the flow of information.

Dear friends,
I am gearing up for my trip to Beijing for Chinese New Year break. I imagine the weather in Beijing is going to be very very cold. Check back later for a more extensive blog post... I'm very busy right now wrapping things up in Taiwan.