Tea and Water

  For those of you who don't know, I took off to study abroad in Shanghai, China at the Tongji University.  I am currently exploring Beijing for a week before my program starts.  I'm having a blast so far.  It was a little rough the first two days trying to get around.  I actually don't think I spoke at all besides to the hotel concierge each morning.  The only other place I've traveled in the last several years is Mexico.  It seems there's a point to speak in English there because they might be able to pick up on some similar words.  This is not the same case in China obviously.  Actually not speaking for two days while being surrounded by millions of people is an experience.  I've learned to ask the concierge to write out a few Chinese characters of the places I want to go that day.  I then can stop anyone in the street and ask them to point me in the right direction.

  Anyways.. I've been waking up early, walking around all day, and trying not to get lost.  This leaves me exhausted every time I get back to my hotel at nightfall.  I wanted to write a lot about what I've seen and experienced so far... but I need to get up in 7 hours to head to the Great Wall, so I'll keep it to pictures with some captions.


  My trip began with spending 2 nights and a day on my parents new Catalina 320 "Antares."


Inside the cabin

Berkley loves the boat

Skipper John

After leaving Sunday night out of Vancouver, Canada I arrived in Hong Kong to transfer planes.

After only 3 minutes in China, as I flew over the city at sunset, I realized I would have to make a second trip to these islands.  I only had a single-entry visa, which would not allow me into the mainland and Hong Kong.


I was very lucky to have a window seat on the side of the city at sunset.  (Huge plane)  (Thanks mom)

After staying awake for 24 hours, I finally arrived at my hotel in Beijing without my bag.

I experienced zero jet lag thanks to my strategy; however, my bag didn't arrive in the morning like Air China told me it would... It reached at least 100 degrees that day and there was a warning for very poor air quality.  I was forced to head out in the same jeans and white-T that I'd been wearing for 2 days... Luckily, I was traveling alone.  I took the subway to the Central Business District on the east side of the city.  There was a very distinct smell of pollution, cigarettes, and trash in this area.. Like I said, the first day was a little rough.




Very nice subway system.  Most of the lines are new. The city only had two in 2005, and now have 6.  They are planning on having 19 lines by 2015.  The machines have an english option and one-way tickets are only two Yuan, or about 31 cents.

Using the AC to their advantage..

The new CCTV Building.  It was supposed to be finished in 2010.  For some reason it had a giant wall surrounding it and I couldn't get close. 

A Beijing intersection.

"The Place"

Sanlitun Shopping Center

Panjiayuan Market, or at least a small part of it. 

Hospital?

I took a ride on a Rickshaw to Ritan Park and to the Temple of wisdom Attained.  Unfortunately my first friend eventually hustled me. 

Mobbin'

Ritan park was one of my favorite spots that I've visited.  It was a great break.  I felt like I could actually breathe and didn't have to constantly clear my throat because of the pollution.

Cards in the park.

Xiao Wang Fu in Ritan Park was a recommended restaurant in my guidebook so I checked it out. 

Delicious shredded pork.

Temple of Wisdom attained.  No photography allowed inside any temples in the city. 

Afterwards I made it back to the subway and headed home.  When I got back to my hotel my bag thankfully came.  I need to go to bed so I'll cover the rest tomorrow hopefully.



Here's a link to the short I made of the storm yesterday.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOGWrABTT0A&hd=1




Oh yeah and this post is called Tea and Water because that's all I've drank so far.  Tea is really growing on me.

Later