Sick and sicker in Beijing

Beijing was a very bittersweet experience. We took a subway to the stop near our hostel. We knew the hostel's address so we figured it couldn't be that hard to get there. WRONG! We ended up walking in every direction except for the right one. Nobody spoke a word of understandable english and everyone that tried to help us pointed us in a different direction. We couldn't read any of the street signs because most were written only in chinese. We couldn't even figure out where we were on a map. We had exhausted all of our resources and were exhausted from walking around with our packs on. Finally, a traveler we had talked to earlier rode up on his bike and said he had found the alley that our hostel was on. We checked into our place which turned out to be a posh, traditional style garden hostel with a/c and beds that felt like sleeping on a cloud. It was a huge relief after being on a train for a week.

Our first meal after the train: EPIC!

John and I with Rafael, Lee, and the owner

After much needed showers (John actually cried while in the shower because the feeling was so immense after smelling and feeling so ripe for 7 days on a train) , our first order of business was to find a restaurant and devour a meal that didn't involve bread or instant noodles. We decided to avoid the main streets and ended up at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in the middle of a random alley. We couldn't read the menu so we asked a Chinese man who spoke a few words of English to order us whatever he liked. We ended up with orange chicken, beets, soup noodles, rice, spicy celery, shredded beans and peppers, and soup with potato, ginger, and pork. The lady who ran the place was super friendly and we ended up taking photos with her. After the food and a few beers, we each paid around $5. For the rest of our trip we resorted to places where we could point at items on a menu.

Your guess is as good as mine...

        John had a page with phrases for common food, so we also tried pointing at items on the list to order. This led to some successful meals as well as some funny disasters. One morning we were a bit hungover (the reason for this will be explained later and involves a very amazing cultural experience) and in serious need of food. We ended up with dumplings filled with garlic, a massive noodle plate, and chicken leg with some funky sauce. We could hardly look at the chicken leg, let alone eat it. All of a sudden, our waitress came over and sat down to watch us eat. We had to get our game faces on, ignore any gross thoughts, and finish the food in front of us. Luckily we were able to explain that we were so full from over ordering and she gave us takeaway boxes!

Tower of Bhuddist Incense by Longevity Hill and Garden of Perfection and Brightness

(John Writing now)  The second day in Beijing, Chris, Lee and I decided to go check out Summer Palace which is where the emperor and his various servants spent their summers away from the Forbidden City. This place was incredible. In terms of size it was about 4x bigger than forbidden city and was a completely gated/wall divided estate that revolved around a massive lake. Their were so many temples and shrines within the palace that it became a very tiring task trying to see everything. We only walked about half the estate and it still took us about 4+ hours and made all of us keel over by the end. We also made the dumb decision to use the train station on the east end of the palace which meant we had to climb up the main mountain that the central temple rested atop, it was much easier said then done :)

Buying beer across from our hostel

Once we returned to our hostel we sat outside and had few casual drinks before dinner from a guy who lived across the alley and sold beers out of his living room for 2yen (50 cents). It was amazing just sitting in this alley and watching the hustle and bustle of daily life of big city China. It was also hilarious because  a young boy took quite an interest in us and was showing off his martial arts skills with  a wooden spear he was carrying. It could not have been funnier. Our next move was to find another hole in the wall to have another epic meal! This would turn out to be one hell of a cultural encounter :)

SIDE NOTE (Random Thoughts about China) - Beijing is so dirty and polluted it is hard to even describe. Our last night in the hostel we were looking at the outside security camera and I asked if it was snowing? Of course it was not, but the amount of pollution in the air kicks up so much debris that it truly looks like a blizzard is occurring :) ... Also cars and automobiles will not stop for you, they also do not obey or have any type of understandable road system. Even when the the cars have a red light and pedestrians have a green walk sign cars will drive and honk as they attempt to hit you! It is truly remarkable and makes for some funny road crossing moments. Did I forget to mention it is completely acceptable while in a restaurant to hack up a lugy and spit it anywhere on the restaurant floor, or light a cigarette and ash anywhere you feel, spit bones or food you do not like on the floor and you pretty much eat in your knickers if you fancy. Hell one night i went to dinner shirtless. Also kids have giant slits in their pants and will take a poo or pee anywhere at anytime, seriously anywhere anytime. They just squat or are picked up by the parent who will spread their legs in the air and the kid will just go for it - street, stairs, subway, lobby, you name it, its likely feasible. Getting in line or waiting your turn is also not a concept here, its a free for all.

Back to our amazing restaurant experience! We ended walking around the Hutongs (alleys) near our hostel until we found a restaurant that had a good amount of Chinese people eating in it and decided to go for it. They had a picture menu so we just pointed to a few items, the meal honestly was just okay but what happened during the meal was priceless! As we are sitting there waiting for the food we look over at two young Chinese guys (20 years old) who had obviously been at the restaurant for a while. They had about 5 beers each stacked in front of them, a bunch of different food plates laying everywhere, cigarette buts scattered all over the floor around their chairs and one of them had his shirt hanging on the chair next to him.They were quite intrigued by our presence and kept staring at us, until finally the small guy with no shirt yelled at us and held up his current beer to toast!

So i obliged, only to realize he was challenging me to a chugging contest. As he started drinking i finished my gulp but looked over at him as he gestured to me to continue drinking so i did until he stopped and did a little choking cough.Then his friend looked at Chris and did the same thing, but this guy was a pro and finished his entire beer. Soon another much much older guy looked at us from across the restaurant and did the same thing to both of us. At this point the entire restaurant including the staff was stopping whatever they were doing and watched all of this with great amusement. The younger guys even went up the counter a brought us more beer. Finally after going back and fourth with this i pulled up a few chairs to our table and gestured for them to come over and join us. We sat with each other and tried talking, gesturing, and doing my cheersing with each other. Keep in mind they did not speak English except for about 3 phrases.The kept ordering more and more beers for the table and ordered pig intestine which was actually the best thing we had all night :) (please keep in mind that we did not truly want or need to drink all night long like we did, but it would have been extremely rude for us not to take anything they offered us, so we embraced the moment with out a lick of understandable English being spoken). We ended up being the last table in the whole restaurant at 12:30am (we sat down at 8ish), even the whole staff was already cleaned up, eating dinner together by the point we were finishing up. The small shirtless guy was hilarious and kept making the strangest martial arts noises we had ever heard and kept hugging me while saying "I love you guys" it was amazing. When we finally got the check which was 120 Yuan (about 15 bucks for 5 dishes, and who knows how many beers), we told the lady to include everything our fellow locals had eating and drinking at their table and with us. The total came out to about 200 Yuan (about 20+ bucks split between 3 of us). This meal is still one of the funniest encounters we have had during the entire journey! The remainder of the night we headed out on the town and linked up with other travelers from Germany, but nothing compared to our experience earlier in the night :)

          We woke up after a long night out on the town and had a very questionable breakfast. We felt awful but decided to rally and head to Tienanmen Square. It was absolutely massive and there were people and vendors everywhere. It is one of the largest public squares in the world and it seemed to go on forever. We had to go through a security check just to enter the square and once we were in, there were guards and security cameras everywhere. Not a good place to make a scene! We went across the whole square and then turned around once we came to a massive gated tower which used to guard the entrance to Old Beijing City.

Tienanmen Square

Gate to Old Beijing

        As we were walking back, a guy and girl walked up to us and started chatting with us. They said they were brother and sister and were visiting from Shanghai. They walked with us towards the Forbidden City and kept asking us rapid fire questions so we hardly had time to think about what was going on. They walked super fast and we were getting annoyed by how antsy and in a hurry they seemed to be. I was talking to the guy and he made up an elaborate story about his work in Shanghai and all the places they had visited in Beijing. He even had a bracelet that he claimed he had just bought while visiting the Lama Temple. We mentioned something about getting a quick bite to eat from a street vendor and they said they wanted to eat too. He started walking towards where the restaurants were. It was odd because he was taking a random route and kept passing a number of cool scenic spots and good restaurants. John even said questioningly to the sister, "Your brother seems to have a good idea where hes going for being a tourist." After walking all over, we finally came to a cafe/ tea house and the guy started walking in. John and I looked at each other, realized they were trying to scam us, and told them bluntly that we didn't want to eat there and were going to find our own place. Unsurprisingly, they lost all interest in talking with us and kept walking down the street. They were very skilled con artists but luckily were weren't fooled!
       We walked into the massive complex outside the Forbidden City and started walking towards the official entrance. We discovered that the ticket booth had just closed for the day. It quickly sunk it that we had just missed the most popular attraction in Beijing because some scammers wasted our time on a b.s. search for a restaurant. Oh well, another strange travel experience.

Ouch! Bumpy road ahead

       On our last day we decided to go to the great wall of china! This is still one of the highlights of my trip and likely will remain one of the coolest things I have ever done. We ended up getting picked up by a shuttle in which Lee, Chris and I were forced to sit in these tiny fold down chairs with no back support while everyone else was sitting in plush bucket seats. The trip up to the remote area of the wall we chose to see took close to 3 hours. Trust me not a fun drive in these seats :) But the wall was incredible and made up for any shaky travel experience. We were given 3+ hours to walk about 4 miles to a pick up point. This was an awesome work out as there were parts that were completely vertical like climbing a mountain, parts that plummeted straight down and others that were just a nice stroll. This took all day and the pictures are really the only way to truly depict what it was like!