So my day started with getting out of rural Beijing and back to a subway. I had to use China's Uber equivalent. My driver was a younger guy and was a brave driver. I am not sure if they are all crazy or just that good. I have only seen one accident and I have not heard any tires screetch. I have never feared for my life but I have for the occasional crazy/brave pedestrian or biker. I also need to tout the App WeChat. I am not sure how to describe it. It's a messager, caller, video caller, lots of emoji and stickers, payment, map, wallet app. The first american app like this will win. I am sure it does more than I mentioned but I am a noob to it. Anyhow, I started at the northern most subway station on the #5 line and worked my way down to the #1 line. Outside the station was the most scooters/bikes I have ever seen in one place. Apparently, most people cycle to work. The scooters are electric too. They can really sneak up on you.
The Forbidden Palace was my first stop. I entered through the main gate after going through security. It's like going to the airport before 9/11. The scale of the Tienanmen area is enormous. I have no comparison other than it's bigger the Washington Mall and I bet Central Park would fit with room left over. The other thing that struck me is the history and grandeur. It is very touristy without the touristy feel. Of course, I could get a semi cold Coke inside the Palace grounds, just for you Coach Leek. I had wanted to see as much of the city as I could so I passed on going inside the palace, but if I get the opportunity to I will. I felt if I went in I was going to kill the majority of the day if I did. It is big. I went out a side gate where the paid part starts. I then headed back up to Tienanmen Square. I wanted to go and see the area of the Tank Man. That is one of those memories that has stuck in my brain since it happened. I believe it just had an anniversary something like 25 years. I am getting old. That dude was like all the Chinese around Beijing, crazy and brave. He must have felt so small for so many reasons. The square has museums and government offices around the edges like Washington. It also has a monument in the middle for the workers and some cool sculptures around on the north end. It was really beautiful, large and ominous. It had the feel like they could shut it down at anytime as well. There were many police and army? guards everywhere.
I then headed up towards the Bell Tower. My boss, Qing, sent me a Red Packet for a bike allowance. A red packet is a gift on WeChat. Some lucky people get more as a bonus if they are lucky. I was told it's a Chinese thing. It took me a bit to see which color bikes I could get. I wanted to get the orange and grey bikes but they require a Chinese, British or Singapore phone number. So the next numerous are the yellow bikes. I will put a picture in tomorrows blog of what they look like. They are called Ofo, no idea how to pronounce it in Chinese. The app makes you scan a QR code and it gives you the combo to unlock the lock and you ride to your destination and lock it back up. Then you pay based on how far and how long. I put $20 US on the app and I rode almost 5 miles that day. It's kind of cool but I am sure I look goofy as heck on this bike. It's also a single gear. Good thing Beijing is flat. While I was figuring out the bike thing I was walking to the Drum and Bell Tower which was 2.5 miles north. These 3 Chinese women approach me and start chatting. They must have walked a quarter mile chatting. The only reason people speak English to you here in Beijing is because they have an art gallery and they want you to see it. It made me laugh. They were real disappointed when I didn't stop for them and go with them. At this point it starts raining a tiny bit. I didn't mention it yet but it was hotter than a hundred suns here yesterday. The humidity is tough. I was already soaked and it hadn't rain until this point. Luckily, I figured out the bike thing. It turns out if you have your VPN on it won't send you the unlock code. In case you didn't know you need a VPN here to get on anything Google or Facebook, Twitter, etc. WeChat is all of those things as well as they use Baidu, which is their version of Google. More on that later. So I was hustling up to the Bell Tower because I really wanted to get a performance on video for Kara. This was one of the places for her on my bucket list and since she has been hella supportive I wanted to go for as soon as I could. I managed to ditch the bike and pay without incident and as I am in line I hear yelling from the tower then the beat of the drum. So I hustle through security and hit the stairs. Those are the tallest steepest stairs I have ever been on and I had to beat feet getting up them. Good thing I did Red Rocks and the stair stepper at school before I came. I forgot how tall the tower was but I went up those in record time to record the performance. It wasn't very long but it was cool. I haven't watch it so I hope you can't hear me gasping for air and almost puking.
The Drum tower had nice views. After I caught my breath and waited for the rain to slow down, I ventured down the steps without killing myself and went across the way to the Bell Tower. They are like twins across from each other. After a wrong turn into the museum exit at the base of the tower, I found my mortal enemy, more stairs. I totally get Po from Kung Fu Panda. Luckily, this time I didn't have to sprint up them. They were steep but not as tall. I took my time but didn't stop. The bell is massive. The story on it was the Emperor wanted the bell so he hired a forge to cast it. They weren't going fast enough so he gave the foundry 80 days to get it done or he was going to behead them. It has very ornate sides. They must have burned some serious midnight oil. Did I mention the bell was large?
On my way back down to the Tienanmen area, I cut down the Dongcheng Hutong kinda accidentally.
The good news is I will be going back on Saturday for a cooking class. I hustled down it knowing I would be back.
I then headed towards the #1 subway line. I knew eventually I had to meet some one to check me into a hotel and bring me my bags and needed to be near the subway. I saw an Apple store on my app I used to navigate on. WeChat could navigate for me but has too much Chinese for me. I need Pinyin. So I cut through a nice little park that was crazy clean and manicured. Then I ended up in the Wangfujing area. It reminded me of Times Square type area. I think it might be cool at night. There were many stores and malls down there. I started to go into a Chinese version of Macy's when I got the call to meet at the hotel. To get to the Wangfujing subway station you have go through a mall. I hadn't been in a mall yet so I had no idea of what to expect. It turns out it's just like America. I was kinda disappointed while comforted because I was at ease with something familiar. They even had a DQ but I didn't have time to grab a blizzard.
So I jumped on the subway and had a chuckle while be packed like a sardine. It was rush hour so it was fun getting on. I managed not to knock anyone over when I was getting pushed on the car. I have a working hypothesis that older Chinese men have no shame. They have a thing about pulling their shirts up over their bellies to stay cooler while rocking hideously ugly shirts, pants or shoes. I didn't get a good shot but I will try to get some more examples in future blogs.
I had a weird moment when I was showering before going to dinner with Daniel and Amy from Roborobo, they are the ones hosting the day camp. Typically, during the school year I am showering at school after I work out and I make it a point to listen to a segment called Tell Me Something Good on the Bobby Bones show. So when I put on iHeart radio I hear the jingle and then that segment came on. The weird thing is it' was 6pm and not 6 am like back home. I tweeted the Show and got a like from them. It's the small things that make you smile on the road.
Here is where the night gets interesting. Daniel and Amy from Roborobo take me to a gigantic mall about 5 blocks from my hotel. Again, the mall is identical to any American mall except that it's got 6 floors. They take me to an Italian joint and we pretty much have an American meal. Amy ordered some escargot, that they made me eat. I think they had a bet I wouldn't. Keep in mind I speak as much Chinese as they speak English which is hardly any. The cool thing is we were using google translate and the Baidu translate for them. They like using the microphone on their phones, I prefer typing because every time I used my or their microphone it would come up as something crazy. I had the best time at dinner. I got the sense that if we were able to communicate we would become friends. After dinner, we had to move all the materials I needed for class into Roborobo and setup because Amy and Daniel didn't want to do it early in the morning. I think they were off today so they wanted to get rid of me. I never would have thought I could feel friendship or relate as much as I did with people I could barely communicate with. That might be one of the coolest experiences I have when I am here.
I need to apologize for typos and lack of editing in the blog. I don't go back like I should so please forgive me.
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