Living a Night in Luxury

This past weekend we reserved a night in the Pangu 7 Star Hotel. I won a night at this hotel at the Canadian Embassy Ball.

Stole this picture from a book at the hotel ahah

It was a very fun night and I am so happy that I won this!! When we first arrived there I checked us in and then we had someone take us up to our room and turn the lights on and show us around our room. As soon as she left I looked at the perfectly made bed and just had to take a jump on it

Here are some other pictures of the hotel.

 

 

This was also displayed on the phone – very excited to see my name! haha

Then we got dressed up for our dinner reservation and had a glass of wine to celebrate.

We headed down to dinner and we were very excited because it was one price and then it was buffet style. There were so many different types of foods and desserts and it was all very delicious. We felt a little silly because we were all dressed up (some people were there in their sweat pants or jeans ahah). The people that worked there were overly nice and always making sure that we had what we needed. We weren’t sure if it was because we were the only foreigners in the restaurant or because we looked like very important people because we were dressed up haha.



After dinner we went back up to the room to let our food settle and we did a little bit of jumping on the bed...haha it was very fun!! There are a lot of pictures of us doing this. aha

The view from the hotel was nice but sadly the weather was very smoggy so we couldn’t see very far but the next morning it rained so the smog started to disappear and we could see further. But the rain also ruined our plans to go walk around the Olympic park the next day. Hopefully we will get a chance to go back another day and check it out.

All in all it was a great night!!

Restaurant Experience

I don’t remember if I have told you before about how people just go to the bathroom here ..pretty much anywhere. Especially since children have split pants, parents will just let their children pee anywhere.

I know your thinking why are you talking about this under a title “restaurant experience” ahah

But this leads to my story...

We were out walking one day and passed by this buffet restaurant and decided to head in and check it out. We sat down and got some food and up a few stairs was another level of tables. We were just eating and having a nice conversation and we look up to see a little boy peeing in the corner of the room not far from our table and we were totally shocked and disgusted but we tried not to stare and just continued to eat while the guy who worked there had to mop it up..poor guy.

The family with this boy moved tables to move away from where their son went to the bathroom haha and we finished what we were eating and were just sitting there for a few minutes and we look up and the boy is now facing away from the corner and starts peeing. He is pretty much aiming it in the walkway which is right next to our table. We pretty much got up and left after that.

Who would have ever thought that would happen in a restaurant...but lets just hope that it does not happen again haha EVER

The Subway

The subway is the cheapest and sometimes easiest way to get around. We used it a lot on our vacation and we use it every once and a while to save some cash.

I have got pretty used to using it but when I know it is going to be a little bit busy I still get pretty nervous.

Here is a picture of Kim and I on the subway and another picture looking all the way down one of the subways.

These pictures really make the subway not look bad at all haha but this is not even half packed. That’s why I took out my camera to take pictures because I wasn’t all crammed in on the subway! haha

It is crazy how much it feels like there is a whole city underground. Sometimes when we have to transfer from one subway to another we have to go up the stairs, down the stairs and back up while going through a maze. You could really get lost under there. haha

Here are some pictures.

Here is a picture of a sign on each door haha and a picture of one of the subway lines.

It is kind of hard sometimes to hear which stop is coming up next because they aren’t familiar words for us. They say them in Chinese and then in English but its hard to catch on sometimes. We have only got on the wrong subway once I think and we had to go back. 

Smog Alert

It can get really smoggy here and I mean really smoggy. Some days there are like blue blue skies and it is so pretty but then other times I can`t even see past the school.

Here is a picture of when it is really nice out !

and then there are days like this....

On days like this you can actually smell the pollution in the air. It`s bad!! Then it will rain and instantly the smog disappears. This is a really bad day. Sometimes it just a little smoggy but then as the days go on it gets worse and worse. It started in the middle of our vacation and then this was on like the 5^thday of our vacation.

Underground City

During our break we ventured to find the Underground City. This was quite an adventure in itself because we spent a long time trying to find it and didn't even get to see it.  There were people driving bikes with seats attached to the back and they kept offering us a ride to where we wanted to go but we were kind of nervous that they were trying to scam us or take us somewhere we didn’t want to go so we just kept saying we would walk. Which we partly regretted because we weren't really sure where we were going and we walked around a lot hah Finally we found someone and asked where it was and they pointed us in the right direction (back the way we had came of course). We were in an old part of town so I didn’t mind that we got lost while we were walking.

Here are a few pictures

There were all these little alley ways you could see down and they were so small and some of them went on forever.

We finally bumped into another guy and we asked him where it was and he said that it was closed. : (
Just after we talked to him we found where it was.

 

Temple of Heaven

I really liked the Temple of Heaven. It was HUGE there was so much to see that I don’t even think we made it through everything. There were lots of pictures snapped here but I can only post so many ahah

The big center part you weren’t allowed inside : ( I tried to snap a good picture of it but no luck there. The little rectangle ones that were around the center one had stores and little museums inside of them. They weren’t written in English though so that was too bad.

There was this other cool part..up these stairs

There was this center stone that is surrounded by all these other stones. And we didn’t understand why it was such a big deal at first. This small center stone everyone was trying sooo hard to cram their way on it ahah

Then I found this sign and it explained it:

Temple of Earth

We actually weren’t even planning a trip to go here and we didn’t even know it was here haha. We were on our way to try and get tickets to a concert (sadly it didn’t work out..no one spoke any English ahah) and we saw this big entrance into something and decided to go and check it out and it was...The Temple of Earth. It was very pretty inside.

I took lots of pictures but just chose a few to put up to show you.

Here is one of me. 

 I think a lot of people come here to just spend time with friends and family. There were groups of people sitting and playing cards and there was a playground with lots of children playing. 

While we were walking through there were lines of trees and it looked so pretty. There were lots of flowers and different herbs were planted all around. There were signs everywhere but none of them were in English so it was hard to understand what a lot of the different things were and what they were for. There weren’t a lot of people walking through here which made it nice and peaceful. I think it was partly because of the smog haha but still pretty.

We didn’t spend a lot of time here because were weren’t expecting to find it and wanted to make it to the temple of Heaven. Earth and Heaven all in one day!

Eating with Chopsticks

At some restaurants here they only give you chopsticks. I had thought I could use them and was getting by and not starving... haha

But one day we went to eat at one restaurant and after eating for a little while the waitress came over and just handed us some forks. I was a little insulted that she thought maybe we looked like we were struggling and I was little embarrassed. Haha

Another time we were at a different restaurant and there was a big table full of people at the back of the room and one guy at the table pointed at our table and started laughing and then making fun of the way we were holding the chopsticks : ( I was pretty embarrassed because then they were all taking turns turning around looking at how we were eating. I guess I need to practice using them since I apparently am not using them right. haha

The “BBQ”

While we were in Tuanli Mark said he was taking us to a BBQ for dinner. I was pretty excited about this because my ides of a BBQ is burgers and hotdogs and it makes me think of summer. Well that was definetly not what it was like at all.

While we were walking in the afternoon she showed us the spot of where the BBQ was going to be and it was this open area with shacks behind it. At first I thought maybe he was joking but he said it was good.


So that night we walk over and there are all these tables and chairs and in the middle of our table is this little metal box aka our little BBQ. Mark’s host teacher came with us because he knows how to speak some mandarin and could order the meat for us. The food is cooked on a big BBQ and then the girl brough us over some hot coals and put them in out little BBQ along with our meat on a stick. We cooked the meat a little longer and then you just eat the meat right off the sticks. It was yummy but I am not a huge fan of spicy food and some of it was kind of spicy. After you eat the chicken wings you just toss the bones on the ground and the stray dogs would come and eat the bones. Here is a picture of me enjoying the yummy meat!

It was a really cool experiences and the food tasted good.

Tuanli

The two other interns that came down with us are at a different school called Beijing Concord College.

To get to this place called Tuanli (pronounced more like Twarli)  we had to get on the subway then take about a half an hour bus ride and then another bus where we had to stand the whole way. At one point on the bus I ended up being stuck standing on the part of the floor that moved, well actually only one foot was on that part. So I ended up doing a bit of the splits and then having my legs crossed and back to the splits ahah it was pretty funny and then I had to get off of it because it was too hard so I squeezed up closer to Kim so I had both feet standing on the same non-moving part. I am sure this would have been funnier to see than to just read. haha

Then we finally had made it. We had to walk down a dirt road to get to where the boys lived and at first we were a little unsure of this place .

I was surprised to see where Mark and Aaron were living because it was very different than where Kim and I were living. The school is in this small town where there isn't any English, and not really any stores and there is a big dirt road that we walked down to get to the town.

Mark showed us the apartment that they were living in and it was very nice. Sadly, they only have one English channel on their TV unlike the few channels we have at our place. Then we took a walk to go check out the market which was just along the road and people were selling fruit or animals or clothes.

Oh and if you look closely there is a man sleeping in all those clothes.


Here is a picture looking down one of the roads too. Pretty cool picture. There were people putting stones down in front of the apartment and there were people taking the corn off the cob.

We also got to see the school that Mark teaches at and it was really nice. I felt like I was walking on a university/college campus. Here is a picture of me with the flag on his campus...sadly the wind isn’t blowing enough to see the whole flag though haha

We went to eat lunch at this restaurant that Mark called "The Left Side". There is one street with two different restaurants on each side of the road and since you can’t read the signs they call them “The Left Side” and “The Right Side” hahaha. The food was delicious!!

Kim and I decided that we didn’t want to take the two buses and subway back to our place so Mark said he would call up a driver that would take us back. His name was Smarty and he took us the whole drive right to the gate of our school for just 100RMB which is like 20 dollars Canadian. Kim and I were surprised because she was saying how we couldn’t have even made it from her house to my house in Moncton for 20 dollars. haha

All in all it was a cool experience and fun but I am glad that I am living in Beijing!

Blue Zoo

I was very excited to go here and see all the different animals, but then when I was reading about it in my lovely Beijing book, it said that it is just an aquarium. Which makes sense now that I think about it: Blue Zoo...water is blue...eh? anywaysss..moving right along haha

It wasn’t as exciting as we had hoped it was going to be. The people weren’t very nice either. I feel like people will do anything here to get to where they want to be so pushing us and shoving us out of the way to see the fish was ok for them. Not so ok with us and we actually got really frustrated and it kind of ruined the experience for us haha

It was hard to get good pictures because of people getting in my way but those were some of my attempts.

The best part was when we could go through this tunnel and you stood on a moving floor and rotate around while there are fish swimming all around you.

And this was the weirdest looking fish that we saw haha

Then as we were leaving a few ladies came up and asked us for our ticket...which at first I was a little upset about because I wanted to keep my ticket....but then she just stamped it and asked us to pick a scratch card. I did and she scratched it for us and I won a little bracelet. And when I say little I mean tiny..I’m a little scared to wear it because it might break. Kim won a bracelet too but then when the lady scratched Mark's she pointed to these big scroll pictures on the wall and we thought he won a picture and got really excited...but turns out he just had a certain amount of money off of one. Too bad!