Mom and Tina were up at 3:30 this morning to get ready for their ridiculously long flight back to America. I took some time off work this week so I could hang out with them. On Thursday we went to the Yashow Market and spent a serious amount of time shopping. We were there for so long that I thought I may start hitting people that were shouting, "Hey lady!" or "Come have a look." Mom and Tina stocked up on souvenirs. They both bought a few jade pieces. My mom is one heck of a hard bargainer... She was offering to pay stupidly low prices for things. She tried two buy two pieces of jade for 10 RMB. She definitely did better than Tina and I. I felt bad for the vendors that had to deal with my mom. She was one tough cookie. I bought a bracelet and a jewelry box from one man and I had an entire conversation with him in Chinese. I was very impressed with myself. I certainly wasn't using appropriate grammar or speaking in full sentences but he seemed to understand me okay. My mom bought a few bracelets and a present for my brother from the same guy and she bargained so hard that he ended up giving her something for free. Why doesn't this ever happen for me? After hours of bargaining for trinkets and things we made our way to the bottom floor so I could get some new "TOMs." I bought them for 50 RMB and I congratulated myself for my good bargaining skills. I am pretty sure my mom would have bought them for 20... but hey, I did pretty well.
After the Hey Lady Market we went to lunch and then out to Tiananmen Square. Forbidden City was already closed so we didn't go in. But we did catch the end of the flag lowering ceremony and had a good laugh when trying to capture the perfect Mao pinching picture.
Tina pinches Mao
Chelsie pinches Mao
We are pretty happy to be at the square
While at Tiananmen we came across two Chinese girls about my age who invited us out for a drink with them. We realized pretty quickly that these girls were scamming us but we went with them anyways because they were friendly enough. We went to a tea house and you had to rent out the room. We had beer and coffee and some conversation. We ended up with a pretty hefty tab because of the room rental but we paid it (split between five people) and headed out. The girls definitely worked for the place because I find it pretty hard to believe that they would have known where this back-alley tea house was. It was a little annoying but not so bad. I actually enjoyed talking to them.
Last I checked Mom and Tina were about here on their route to Detroit for their layover (this was about an hour ago):
I hope the flight is more on track than it seems from the crooked path.
Today made three days in a row of being totally tourists. We headed out rather late this afternoon for the Temple of Heaven and stayed for a few hours. The park was a lot bigger than I thought it would be and it was really pretty. Apparently the Temple of Heaven (surprisingly) used to be where the emperors would worship heaven and pray for a good harvest. We came across some really great Chinglish today... I would like to eat at the dive-in kitchen for sure.
The temple itself was very pretty. I really enjoyed all of the colors and the many different buildings. We had some pretty spectacular photo opportunities today.
The Long Corridor
After we saw the main event we found another Chinese calligraphy artist to paint my name in symbols for me. You can watch the video to see my new painting and hear everything that the letters of my name mean.
My favorite part of the day was yelling into the Echo Wall. Check us out! It took a minute to figure the wall out but I think eventually we got the hang of it. I think at the end of it all we were still a bunch of dweebs yelling at a wall.
When we were finished with the Echo Wall we found our way into the Circular Mound. Again there were many photo opportunities to be had.
Peace, mom.
We are sitting on the Heavenly Center Stone of the Circular Mound
On our walk out of the park we saw a man doing water calligraphy. I absolutely love the process and it is really beautiful. I like the simplicity and impermanence of it all.
Yet again we had a really great day. We ended it by having pizza for dinner at The Tree. It was absolutely delicious. We also bought a few more DVDs and got me some new tennis shoes so I will not grow more blisters on my feet. Be on the lookout for a post on Chinese voodoo medicine. Seriously, the stuff is freaky.
So I said last week that I would tell you how to fold a dumpling. This was maybe the only part of dumpling making that I could actually contribute to. It took me a few times but by my third or fourth dumpling mine looked just as good as the locals' dumplings. So, step-by-step, here are the dumplings:
Basically this is just going to be a random post of photographs... Here are a few more from The Great Wall... Check out all of the stairs. I mean, who would have thought a wall was made up of only stairs? I had really envisioned a nice path suitable for a stroll.
Lots of steps
Peek-a-boo!
Stone steps, brick steps
We needed a jumping picture!
Caved-in steps
The first steps of the day
Obviously I have some video footage from the day, too. Here is my first glimpse of the wall (which doesn't show on the video because of the fog, Tina and Theresa trying to be cool by running up one of the many sets of stairs and also me on the toboggan ride down.
Even though the zoo was incredibly depressing I did end up with a few good photographs.
I hope Peeta and Gale aren't jealous...
I thought camel humps stood up?
She fits in at the zoo perfectly...
On to the aquarium-
This poor turtle was stuck in the coral for awhile...
I loved the jellyfish!
The dolphin show was awesome. Would have been cooler in English I think.
The four of us ventured out to the zoo with Bella and Cherry today. It was really very depressing. The animals were in horrible living conditions and I basically wanted to cry the whole time. I was happy that I got to pet a zebra... and the pandas seemed a bit happier than the rest of the animals. Animal rights activists would have a field day at this place. I didn't get many pictures of the animals because it was too depressing. It got to the point that I could not even look anymore. I walked through exhibits with my head down.
I am petting a zebra! They liked me because of my shirt.
Rhino... missing his horn.
My new umbrella =) I can't wait for rain!
After the zoo we went to the aquarium which proved to be a lot happier. I am definitely glad that we got out of the misery at the zoo and landed at the aquarium. We had been out all day and after our hike yesterday we weren't totally up for seeing every exhibit today. We skipped the "petting station" and the sharks... I kind of wish we had seen it all but we didn't eat anything all day so dinner was a must after awhile.
Hey, what's that?
My favorite exhibit of the day!
After the zoo and the aquarium we went out for coffee at Central Perk and then went to dinner at a yummy Chinese restaurant T and I found a few weeks ago when we were attempting to book our failed trip to Inner Mongolia. Speaking of vacations, we are having one in two weeks. T and I are going to Yangshuo for a week! I pretty much can't wait!
Back on the orange couch. I am so Rachel!
We have more adventures planned for the rest of the week. I am definitely enjoying exploring China and seeing everything that it has to offer.
Mandarin lesson:
This has been a mandarin lesson before but now it is written in coffee.
Péngyǒu 朋友 (friend)
