The Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square

On Saturday, I had the chance to explore a little bit of Beijing, and decided to head to the center of the city to see a little bit of history and culture.

My first task was to figure out how to get from the apartment to the subway station, and how to navigate the subway. I figured that out with relatively little trouble, although the transfers are not quite as well marked as I've seen on other subway systems. However, I made it without any trouble.

The square and the palace were both really huge, and I spent several hours walking around and exploring. It was quite hot in Beijing on Saturday, so I kept buying water and trying to stay cool. After I'd explored for awhile, I was feeling really hot and still kinda jet lagged, so I decided to call it a day and head back to the apartment.

As I said, the Forbidden City is really huge, and they have it set up so that you enter at one end, walk all the way through, then exit at the other end. I hadn't realized that before, so I hadn't figured out the best way to get back to the subway system. The only thing I could figure out to do was walk all the way around the palace complex and hope I'd eventually end up at the spot where I started.

I'm still not quite used to the heat here, because it isn't this hot in Indiana yet, so I'd been struggling to stay hydrated all day long. I wasn't feeling well, and something I'd eaten or drank wasn't sitting well with me. It was a rapidly deteriorating situation as I started on my trek. I did finally find the subway, but I was approached by a number of people wanting to sell me things, wanting to take me to their art gallery, or doing other things that are known to be scams around the Forbidden City. I was so exhausted and felt really poorly by the time I got on the train.

The subway was really crowded, and it was really hot. There wasn't a lot of air flow on the train. I thought I was going to faint or something, so I decided that today was one of those days where a taxi was just the best solution. I got off of the train and went up to the street to try to find a taxi, but there were no taxis to be found.

I ended up wandering around for nearly an hour trying to figure out how to get home, or how to find someplace that was cool or had a bathroom. I saw someone carrying a cup from Starbucks, so thought I should give that a try. As I was looking for the Starbucks, I found a Korean cafe chain that I loved, so I went there and things were better! After hanging out for awhile at the cafe, I decided to start my search for a means of transportation back home again. I went back to the street, and was able to find a taxi. I showed him the apartment address written in Chinese, and off we went!

I thought this was the end of my adventure, but it wasn't quite. We got up to the general part of the city where I'm staying, and the driver stopped and made me get out of the cab. I wasn't entirely sure where I was, so I said a quick prayer, picked a direction and started walking.

Thankfully, after about a block, I recognized a store and was able to find my way back to the apartment. It has been quite some time since I've had an adventure of this sort. There are so many things I love about cross-cultural experiences, especially ones that are a bit more long-term, but sometimes I forget just how stressful it can be trying to get your bearings in a new city.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the day. Enjoy!

Hello from Beijing!

After all these years of trying, I've finally made it to China. I survived the flight, saw movies of varying quality, managed to not lose my luggage, and made it through my first Beijing taxi ride.

The last few days have been full of settling in kinds of things. I now have a Chinese phone number and data on my phone. My suitcases are all unpacked. I've figured out how to navigate public transportation. I am staying with a family, so I haven't had to do any shopping for food yet, but I'm looking forward to that in the coming weeks. 

I've already started doing a bit of teaching. The student population is a little bit younger than I was expecting, but the kids seem mostly sweet and well-behaved. I'm just going to have to reach way, way back into the Camp Chazon days and early months in Korea to remember tricks for entertaining groups of children. 

I didn't have any students today, so I ventured out to see the Forbidden City and Tienanmen Square. It's always an amazing experience to see something in real life that you have read about for years. The sky was blue today, which was exciting, but it was quite hot. The temperature was around 90F/33C, so it was pretty awful to be out in. There is lots of shade in the Forbidden City, but Tienanmen Square was brutal. I didn't stay there very long. 

I did lots and lots of walking today, and I'm really regretting the one thing on my packing list that I forgot to put in my suitcase -- my tennis shoes.... I'm going to have to try and figure something out, although I am in the Land of Tiny Feet where it is always challenging to buy shoes. 

I managed to navigate the subway without getting lost, and I also made it to the entrance of the Forbidden City without getting lost. After I finished my tour of the palace, I discovered that I couldn't get out the way I had come in. I wandered around for awhile, managed to get myself lost, then managed to find my way home. It is all a great adventure! I'm just thankful for GPS enabled phones and map apps!

It has been hard to form a real opinion of Beijing so far. The part of the city where I'm living is far more residential than anything else, so it is quiet and not very crowded. There are loads of trees, and lots of rose gardens and other flower beds throughout the neighborhood. It's nice and calm up here, but there's also not much to do or see. I had a chance to see a bit more of the city today, and it was much more consistent with my experiences in Asian cities. I'm excited to continue to explore the city. I'm trying hard to no compare everything here to everything in Seoul. 

The school situation will be good, I think. And the apartment where I'm staying is quite nice. But neither of these things are what I thought they would be based on conversations and emails before I left. It has been a little bit hard trying to deal with all of the change, miscommunication and adjusting expectations as I'm going through the worst of jet lag, but the jet lag is getting much better, so I hope that my adventurous spirit will revive itself soon!

I'll try to post some pictures from my outing today sometime soon, but my unrestricted internet access is a little sketchy sometimes, so I'm not sure how long it will take to upload photos on here. I did manage to get them on facebook, so you can check there if you would like!