I’ve been blessed with amazing history teachers and
professors over the years. From middle school through my graduation of college
it seems that I have always had a history teacher looking out for me. I owe a
lot to these great men and women, they inspired me to see how the world got to
where it is and to see why we do things the way we do them. Most importantly
they are the ones who inspired me to travel and I try to thank them as often as
possible, who would I be had they not been there to inspire me?
I went to Beijing thinking a lot of the words of wisdom
imparted to me by so many great and caring people over the years. It is through
that lens that I saw Beijing. Through the memories of lessons I wished I would
have paid more attention too.
Perhaps I should mention why I took this trip to Beijing, as
all of my followers in America were enjoying an ordinary week, China was on
holiday. October first was National Day
commemorating the formation of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), it’s most
similar to Independence Day in America. As National Day coincided with Mid-Autumn
festival this year there was a ten day holiday! To celebrate these occasions
two fellow English teachers and I chose to go to Beijing.
The Great Wall
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| Photo credit goes to my friend and fellow English teacher. |
Once the barrier between China and Mongolia, some believe
that you can see it from space. I can’t tell you the first time I heard about
the Great Wall, and to tell you the truth I never had much interest in seeing
it. When choosing which travel course I wanted to go on my junior year of
college my father asked me why France when I could go to China and see the
Great Wall? I can’t remember the exact answer I gave him, I just remember
having a take it or leave it attitude when it comes to the Great Wall.
This changed a bit by the time I was living in my small
Chinese city, instead I found myself strangely pulled to the Great Wall. I needed
to see it. So our first full day in Beijing was spent trekking to this wonder
of the world.
I’m not sure what I expected, but in all honestly I was a
bit under-whelmed. The part we saw follows a line of mountains with parts that
are extremely steep.
We spent a few hours exploring the wall and making friends
with a woman who sells bottled water carried all the way from Mongolia! Someone
needs a geography lesson. I found it interesting that the people who live on
the other side of the wall still consider themselves Mongolian.
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| This is the village in "Mongolia" where the woman selling bottled water lives. |
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| She gets to the wall everyday via donkey. |
I must say the best part about visiting this part of the
Great Wall was the alpine slide at the end!
Tiananmen Square
A historical place, one of the most surveillanced places in
the world, where I bought a Chinese flag; words cannot accurately describe this
important place. Instead I give you pictures.
Beautiful flowers.
Western Food
Living in China is a constant adventure from buying
groceries to taking the bus and everything in between, including meals. I find
most the food very good and luckily in China almost all the menus have
pictures! So its easy to have some idea as to what you are ordering. However I
often do miss being able to identify what I’m eating.
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| We forgot to take pictures of all the western food so I drew you all a picture of a burger :-) |
In Beijing there are tons of Western restaurants offering
all sorts of delicacies easily identifiable by American eyes. We ate mostly
western food while in Beijing, we wanted a taste of home. However on our last
day we went to a Western grocery store! Now I can try making some American food
in my apartment.
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| Look at my Western goodies! |
