La Fin

This afternoon I'm hopping back onto Air Canada for a whole long time and will be back in Canada 45 minutes later (the time change does weird things.)

This has been an amazing, educational, challenging, fantastic 6 weeks! 

Stay tuned, ill no doubt post a link to the photos once I get home and upload them.

Home stretch

When I wake up in the morning only 2.5 days left! I've started my packing and the first things I want to do when back (farmers market! Fresh fruit and veg! Clean air!!!)

Apologies to those who were liking the daily posts on here, I got derailed from a few aspects and just never caught up. I promise ill go through all my pictures with whoever wants to when I'm home!! 

Before I wrap this up, here's a few gems:

Seen on a menu: Fried enema

Apparently "Quebec Poutine" - I had to order it. No, it wasn't good at all and no, I didn't eat the whole thing

Ill have to write a final recap before I go. But just remember the mantra "T-I-C" whenever you see something or have an experience that is just so... China.

 "this is china", shake your head, and enjoy the ride! 

Almost home time!

I wrote a whole post this afternoon and I guess it didn't save offline because now it is gone. 

Instead of writing right now, I'm going to bed. But I'll leave you with one pic from my weekend for now...

Overlooking the forbidden city

Ok then...

Dessert: Magnetic Bread

I don't know why it's magnetic but it was tasty

Footwear on the subway

That's a guy wearing nylons with those shoes. I'm going to be fashion police for a second here and Just, no. 

The corner of sin? 

Lions and Tigers and Crowds oh my!

Today I made my way to the zoo. It was amazing to see all the mamals in their natural habitats:

Sorry I had to...

As i was saying. 

I made it too the zoo a bit later than I had expected, which was too bad because it was really crowded. Lots of families. Children. Crowds. Ugh. The animals were great but sadly it was midday and they were all napping. 

Panda!!! It was especially cute when he shifted around and almost looked like he (she?) was gonna get up and walk around. But alas it decided to continue dreaming while making cute chewing faces. Aw so cuddly

This one sleeps like Mila does... 

To note, real pandas aren't all white like pop culture and stuffed animals lead us to believe. These guys looked like they could use a bath! ;) 

There were more animal, monkeys, elephants, white Bengal tigers, etc. I didn't stay all that long though  cuz dodging families with sugared up children just ain't my thang. 

Lemur is trying to steal your soul...

A few more pictures

From my adventures in the past few days: 

One of the buildings in the lama temple 

Oh yah, I forgot to tell you.. I'm in California now, not BJ

I may come home with a lot of cute puppies I've puppy-napped

Apologies for being somewhat absent on the blog this week. I've been working hard during the day and crashing out early in the evening. I've got to step up my adventures though since I've less than 2 weeks left. Wow. Where did the time go?? 

Other than a few dinners this week, nothing to report until my adventures today.. 

This morning I headed to the lama temple (no alpacas.. Sorry) 

The entrance 

It was very peaceful, people burning incense, lots of Buddhist statues, etc. more pictures on the camera (I guess I'll be posting a lot of pictures for everyone once I'm home... If anyone is interested in seeing these things that I speak of?) 

Near the lama temple you have this wonderful old architecture and...

... Nice that they kept the historical feel but. Really.?

Even the signs were peaceful by the lama temple: "green grass shade check in one step". 

... 

Then I decided instead of hoofing it all day, I'd play !!TAXI CAB RUSSIAN ROULETTE!! (That's supposed to be read in a game show announcers voice btw) 

So here's how it works:

1. Flag down a taxi - make sure it is a legal, metered cab, not one that will quote you some insane price - this is sometimes the hardest part of the game

 2. Hop in the cab, tell them where you want to go.

- Conversation goes like this: 

Me: Solana Mall???

Cabbie: Blank stare

Me: SO-LA-NA

Cabbie: ...

Me: (pulls out guidebook map, finds a park in the neighborhood of where I want to go)." Chaoyang park." (Pointing in the map) 

Cabbie: Chaoyang parku???

Me: yes (nodding like mad)

Cabbie: AH! Chaoyang (starts driving)

3. At this point I know the city enough, I'm going in at least the correct direction, so I've at least won the game. 

Bonus points: see a sign for the destination, get the cabbies attention, point and gesture at the sign while repeating "SO-LA-NA", cabbie clues in, all is right in the world, I make it to my destination! 

Keep in mind that you don't always win taxi cab Russian roulette! There's some false starts and you don't necessarily always find yourself where you want to be, but there's always the option of getting out and flagging down another cab, to start the game again! 

I'm off to enjoy my "afternoon" tea... More fun to report later 

Great Wall Photos

The guide from my great wall hike sent me the photos she took of us hiking. I'm the one with the bright green backpack, and sitting on the steps of the watchtower in the first pic. You can see what an AMAZING day we had :)


Dinner tonight, Peking duck dinner tomorrow. Other than that working hard and nothing to report!

Over halfway

I'm sitting here in "comptoirs du France", a little French patisserie blogging while waiting for my panini and fresh watermelon juice. I've set out today just wandering around a bit. I found the Russian area.. 

China or Russia? Who knows! May as well have stepped into Moscow. 

And a beautiful park, ritan park, which is very Chinese and peaceful to wander through

Now that I'm more than halfway through my adventure here, a few things I've learned:

1. How to cross an 8 lane street, against the signal, safely (cars and bikes don't, and aren't expected to yield to pedestrians)

2. In a pinch, a bakery is somewhere to get yummy and safe food

3. For a culture that doesn't much like sweets, they make everything that isn't supposed to be sweet cloyingly sweet. Meat. Tomatoes. Bread. You name it, it has a ton of sugar in it! 

4. In a restaurant, you flag the waiter over to order, to pay, if you want anything. There's always a ton of staff however they are REALLY good at not making eye contact so that they don't have to come over and help you.

5. A Chinese department store is basically a store with many mini stores of different brands in it. You'll mostly find that here. Not too many "western style" malls

6. The seasons here are very distinct. When I arrived it was Summer. 40 degrees plus, smog, humidity, rain showers, thunderstorms, gross. The past week, it's autumn, so mid to high 20's, sunny, clear skies. Wonderful. September is the month to be here! 

7. The subway is a great way to get around. Even in rush hour. Just be prepared to use your elbows. Biking is better though.

Now for the TMI portion:

8. There is an abundance of public toilets around, in various states of cleanliness. Enter at your own risk. Oh, and they're usually squatty potties (hole in the ground, you put your feet on either side). Handicap stalls have western style toilets but trust me, based on cleanliness, you'd rather use the hole. 

9. Starbucks napkins are amazing. They come in handy for everything from wiping the sweat off your face to using as TP. You're welcome :-D

Now I'm going to go enjoy my lunch and continue my wanderings..

Great Wall

Yesterday I was underwhelmed by Beijing. Well today I was suitably impressed. 

I joined a tour, which turned out to be myself, a Brit, and an American couple, along with a guide who took us up hiking on one of the unrestored sections of the Great Wall. It was about a 2.5 hour drive out of BJ and then we hiked along trails and on top of the wall itself for much of the 10k hike. The section I was at, Guobeikou, is compared to a snaking dragon. It was very steep up to the guard towers at some points, and we were also hiking along parts of the wall that were in such disrepair that the trail was only about 2 feet wide with a steep drop on either side. I'm so glad I decided to do a hike instead of the touristy parts of the wall. It would be cool to see some of the restored parts, but it i don't get out to the wall again, this was an amazing experience. AND it was some of the clearest weather in a long time. With the zoom lens on my camera you could follow the wall as far as the eye could see...

Pics taken at the same time of my vantage point from one of the towers...

I can't wait to get home and see all my pictures from the hike today.. It was a great day! 

Oh, and remember that bike tour I did? I have some pics from that too :)

(Bell tower)

(Forbidden city)

(I love how my bright colours stand out against everything else)

(National arts centre)

Temple of Heaven

Today after work I went to see the Temple of Heaven. It's a Unesco Heritage Site and really old and a really nice park and green space. 

Purdy isn't it? 

From on top of the steps there you have a pretty good vantage of what is the sprawl of BJ. It's nice. It's peaceful. It's really old. It's a temple. Frankly after all the hype (some of my coworkers say its their favourite place in BJ?!) I'm kind of underwhelmed. Sorta like how I feel about a lot of aspects of this city! It's all good. 

In the morning I'm heading to the wall for a hike on some of the restored and unrestored sections. It should be really great, nice and sunny :) 

And here's a picture of another random dog: 

Oh and cookies:

Olympic park

Tonight after work I grabbed a quick bite and headed up to the must-see Olympic park! Boy am I glad I did! 

Like so many other Olympic venues that came before, it is pretty much now unused, sitting, a shadow of its' former days. Apparently sometimes the birds nest is used for events and the water cube is in fact a water park, so that's something. Otherwise it's a big open space with random vendors, photographers trying to get you to buy posed pictures in front of the venues, food vendors, random open air karaoke screens, old ladies dancing all choreographed with fans, random random random.

Good news is its China, there's millions of people, and this place will never be fully devoid of tourists. 

These are the key sites. I have a ton of pics on the camera, of course. And a few videos of some of the freaky stuff I saw that I will have to figure out a way to post somehow...

I can't fully explain the weirdness that I experienced tonight, and even pictures wouldn't do it justice. But I'm glad I experienced more of weird and wonderful BJ! 

Speaking of weird and wonderful: COTD

Buckwheat seaweed cookies. If you took the seaweed off, these were actually pretty tasty. 

 

Status quo

Not much to report here! 

Keeping busy with work and other activities. For example, Monday after work I went for a massage, yesterday for a manicure and pedicure... It's very difficult here in BJ ;) 

In all honesty though, this week I'm missing home a bit. The novelty has worn off, I'm sick of being careful what I eat and thus eating a very small amount of fresh fruit/veg, a large amount of bread and rice and cheese... not to mention I'm sure the "beef" I had for dinner last night was donkey - at least I hope it was something as innocuous as donkey! (I was hungry, I ate it. I'm still here.) But I'm sure that's just a passing feeling because as of this weekend I've only got 3 weeks left and really have to hit the sights and experiences hard. 

Not a lot of pics to share. I've been a few interesting places (like the HUGE Chinese supermarket today) but haven't necessarily been able to whip out the iPad to take a pic (fun fact: they really don't like people taking pictures in stores and stuff. I've been asked/gestured at several times to put the camera/iPad away). 

And for those who considered this tl;dr, here's some cookies:

Puppy hiding in the grass 

Oops sorry for waking you! 

China...? Or anywhere else in North America that serves "Mexican" food?

Back to the "grind"

After a busy weekend of touristing and shopping and melting (shanghai was HOT!), I'm back in Beijing and ready for another week of work :) 

Shanghai was an amazing city. More cosmopolitan than Beijing, i liked it a lot more. I've decided Beijing is more like LA (sprawling, not really and centre to it), whereas Shanghai feels more like NYC. It has a cool energy and vibe to it. Not to mention an amazing skyline and tons to see! I would ramble all about it but frankly I'm not sure you're too interested... I'd need pictures fully explain what I saw and did but All my Shanghai pics are on my actual camera so sadly I'm not going to be posting them here (maybe when I'm back in a month). 

Instead, you get random food. 

Reads "apple breast" .. Hmmm,

Bag of random Chinese happiness (and my m&ms)

Avril Lavigne. On my ice tea juice box. I don't get it. 

Starting week 3 tomorrow. Time is flying!

Train to shanghai in pictures

After work today me and my friend made our way to the train station, en route to Shanghai. 5 short hours later we're in a cool, more metropolitan city than Beijing. I think it's going to be a good weekend!!!!

Some pics from the train station first : it's massive 

Doesn't even do it justice 

Awesome shoes 

People EVERYWHERE 

Very fast train! 

Only 300 km/h. Nbd

Awesome first class "meal" 

COTD: green onion cookie rolls (ick)