Thursday, April 4 5:15pm
My ventures today began by taking the subway for a pretty decent bit to
the outskirts of town. There, I found the magnificent Summer Palace.
This place was the location for summer retreat for the Qing Dynasty. The
grounds cover 716 acres and overlooks many lakes, as well as Beijing
itself. I'm hoping that the walk through the extremely vast and hilly
grounds of the Palace will prepare me somewhat for the climb tomorrow on
The Great Wall.
Throughout my travels in Beijing, I've noticed two things. One, the
people here are taller than the people in Shanghai. Secondly, the people
here seem more refined. When getting on or off the subway, they follow
'typical' protocol. The only exception of pushing us when the subway car
is full and the door is about to shut, but someone is still getting on.
Even standing in line to buy tickets for the Palace, people were in
lines with no 'cutting' or pushing. It has been refreshing.
While on the way to the Beijing Olympic Center, I passed through another
subway. I find subway systems easy to use and I gain control of my
direction. With taxis, I have to hand them a card in Chinese writing and
a, hope that what was written for me was correct, and b, hope the taxi
takes me to the right spot. With the subways, I get to do all of that
myself. To enter the subway in China, you have to go through security
and bag check every time. Today, I saw security ask a guy to drink some
of his bottle of water, I guess to make sure that it was poison/gas
free. Later, I saw security ask an older women to do the same and she
refused and kept on walking while screaming at the security. Of course,
security yelled right back but no one did anything.
Beijing Olympic Center was only a few stops a way. As I left the subway,
it began to rain a little. I only walked on the parkway for a little
while. Just enough to see the Stadium and Aquatic Center. I then turned
and walked the opposite direction, not wanting to get back on the subway
to go home yet. While walking, I came to a shopping mall, named
"Chinatown," and laughed out loud at the irony. I walked around for a
little while and the spotted a bakery. This sounded better than the
McDonald's that I was going to eat. I rationalized the idea by saying
that I was going to compare Chinese McDonald's to American McDonald's.
:-) I was hungry, since I'd only had a few dumplings at Summer Palace.
At the bakery, I chose little hotdogs cooked in a bun and pineapple
tarts. They were both delightful.
I continued walking the direction I was on, basically following the
subway, just in case. I felt better finally seeing some of modern
Beijing, because up until now, everything has been historic. I walked
and walked and walked and finally decided to jump on the subway for the
last little bit. And good thing, because by the time I got off my stop
and walked 10 minutes to my hotel, it stating raining hard. Right now,
as I'm writing in the glass enclosed courtyard, I can hear the rain
drops hitting the roof. It's a peaceful sound.
It's only 5:15pm now,
but I didn't want to get my equipment wet and I need to finalize my
plans on how I'm getting to The Great Wall tomorrow and the airport
Saturday. After that, American movie time in my room. :-)
**miles walked today: 8.37
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