Dear friends,
I spent one day at the Great Wall and one day at the Temple of Heaven and Tiananmen Square. I'm jumping on the Great Wall in the above picture =D.

When we went to the Great Wall, we woke up at 6:30 and left at 7am. It took us an hour to get to the Badaling portion of the Great Wall. When we were there, it was about 8am and we were surprised to find it closed, well, at least that particular entrance to which we went. We went to another entrance and they were accepting tickets so we quickly got in. There was virtually nobody on the Great Wall when we got there, but after half an hour, we saw lots of people coming in the other direction! They were coming towards us because I presume they had taken the train/cable car to the top and decided to come down the Great Wall instead of first climbing up.

The weather was pretty cold, but not as cold as that first day we went to the Forbidden City. We decided to go to the Great Wall the day we went because the weather was 19 degrees Celsius, but at Badaling it was about 4 or 5 degrees lower so we still dressed warmly.

We climbed about 2/3 of one side of Badaling then called it quits and headed to the other side where there were no people. The other side did not attract tourists because the slope was 65 degrees, very very steep. Of course, we didn't go to the 65 degree slope portion, we just climbed to the point where it became 65 and then we stopped and turned around. We got some great pictures, though, because there was nobody on this side of the Badaling Great Wall.

The day we went to the Temple of Heaven and Tiananmen Square, the weather was "hai hao," or okay. When we entered the Temple of Heaven, there were several gates you needed to get past. The outer perimeter was the sacrificial pit area and the second, third gates were more temples. When you finally arrive at the center, or the Hall of Prayer, you pray for good harvests. It was all very beautifully sculpted. When we went to the innermost Hall of Prayer, they were actually filming a movie or something at the site and we saw some traditional robes of the Emperor's advisors and servants. They roped off the area so no tourists could disturb them while they filmed.

The film crew filming at the Hall of Prayers

When we spent the other half of the day at Tiananmen after going to the Temple of Heaven, the weather was warming up slightly. Tiananmen was huge. It was hard too imagine that the June 4th incident happened here only 20 years ago.

You can find more pictures of the Great Wall here: China Photo Set 4
and
photos from the Temple of Heaven & Tiananmen Square here: China Photo Set 3.

Dear friends,
On the fourth or fifth day I was in China, I visited the silk market. I've never seen anything like it! Imagine all those street vendors selling clothes, jade, hewelry, accessories, and art you see in New York City and Taiwan. Put hundreds of them inside a building and that will give you a rough idea of Beijing's silk market. There are rows and rows of vendors calling out to you...

Vendor (who mostly talks to my friend, who is white, disinterested, and does not speak any Chinese): "Lady, lady. Buy some clothes? Pretty shirt. Come see. Try on. Come look. You name price."
I stop to actually look at a shirt that I like.
Vendor: You speak Chinese? Yes? Good. (proceeds to speak in Mandarin) Shirt is good quality. This shirt is RMB$380. Real silk!
Me: That's way too expensive. How about I give you RMB$50.

(Yeah, I cut the price a 100 fold...Vendors really like to rip you off)

Vendor: WAH?! You think I can make money off of that? No way.
Me: Okay. (I start to walk away)
Vendor: Ok, ok, lady. I give you $100, best bargain.
Me: That's really too expensive. $50 is my highest offer.
Vendor: Ok, ok. I give you $80.
I really start to walk away, although I really like the shirt...
Vendor: FINE! I give you $50. (Vendor stuffs the silk shirt into a bag, obviously exasperated and tired of my stubbornness).

That was probably the best bargaining experience I had, though. I may have still been ripped off, but at least I got the best bargain a foreigner could receive.

Bargaining takes a lot of energy and time. If you're ready to argue and spend 10-15 minutes talking about the price, the silk market is for you! I had a lot of fun. I didn't take any pictures, though, because that would make me look even more like a tourist.

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.