As you can imagine after our seven mile hike across the Great Wall, we didn't have too much energy left, so we ate dinner at the complimentary Novotel happy hour, watched a movie, and called it a night. The next day we slept right through breakfast and into the afternoon. We then walked around Beijing, got some lunch at Pizza Hut, and hung out until sunset. We spent sunset watching 108 Chinese soldiers take down the Chinese national flag. It was pretty interesting, reminded me a lot of the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. We were among tens of thousands Chinese citizens, so it was very cool to take in the culture. I am so surprised to see the pride the Chinese people have in their country, but then again it's hard for me as an outsider.
The night we went to our favorite San Li Tun bar street, and started out the night the right way, with a couple of strong cocktails. The night was a lot of fun, we talked to many locals, and expats alike. We went to a bar/club and met a nice group of three Chinese hair styleists. We ended up spending the whole night hanging out with Marco, Alice, and Lucy, and many Tsing Taos were drunk, and good conversation was had. Of course only Marco spoke English, and our Mandarin is nonexistent, so the conversation was slow, but we still managed to have a blast.
I woke up this morning around 9:30 to make breakfast, Jed decided to sleep in which was okay with me, because I had some emails to write, and a newspaper to read. I brought Jed back some croissants, and we got ready to greet the day. We wanted to go to the Mao Mausoleum, but unfortunately it is only open for about two hours a day, and two early hours at that. So we settled on the Summer Palace, kind of like the summer version of The Forbidden City. It took about an hour to get there, and when we did, instead of getting an audio guide, we opted for a tour guide. Her name was Carol and we all had a blast with her showing us around. It was really funny because her English wasn't perfect, but she tried so hard, and she really did know so much . She would also quiz us at random intervals to make sure we were paying attention, and she taught us how to say a few more Mandarin words. The Summer Palace is so nice, there are trees everywhere, so plenty of shade, a huge man-made lake, and a boat made out of marble. It was really beautiful, and having the tour guide to show us around made it even more enjoyable.
Jed really wanted to see the CCTV tower, and Carol said she would take us since she lived right by, and hey we were paying for a taxi. Well what Jed really wanted to see was the CCTV building, but we didn't realize that until we were already at the CCTV tower. It looked just like the Space Needle, and it is the tallest building in all of Beijing! To make things even better there was an Aquarium underneath, and Carol really wanted to take us. So Jed, Carol and myself visted the Beijing Aquarium, and it was exactly pretty cool. We got to see the Sea Lion show which only lasted for 6 minutes, but was so funny to watch, and Carol seemed really love it, she even taped the whole thing on her phone.
After the Aquarium we said our goodbyes to Carol, and paid her 100Y, with a generous tip because we had such an unexpected fun day. I highly recommend getting a tour guide if you ever come to Beijing. We went back to the hotel, and fought exhaustion and decided that we were going to have a tradional Chinese dinner.
We went to Ju De Roast Duck Restaurant, which was recommended by the hotel, and got seated. After looking through the menu we decided to get half of Peking duck, and fried duck with scorpions. Yes scorpions. The duck was delicious, except the duck brain, which I didn't eat but Jed didn't make me wish I had. Then the scorpions got there, and it was a bit of a shock, I mean there were 20 fat fried scorpions over a couple of pieces of fried meat. Jed was the brave one, and ate the first scorpion, and after his third I finally gave it a shot. It looked a lot worse that it taste, kind of like a salty fish, with a satisfying first crunch. After the first one, we just starting popping em, feeling pretty bad ass as we did it. I think Jed and I are ready for an eating challenge on some reality show.
After dinner we bought some souvenirs and are back in the hotel now, getting ready for our last night in Beijing. Our flight leaves tomorrow at 8:40 going to Osaka, Japan with a stopover in Seoul. So excited for Japan, but actually a little sad that were only stopping in Seoul to change flights. Seoul has a great reputation over Asia, and if we had known about it we would have definitely set aside some days to visit the city. Oh well, there is always next time!! We will be in Kyoto until 7/15, and the Tokyo until 7/20. I can't believe we are in our last 10 days of this trip, it has gone by in a blink of an eye.
Alright got to go make myself look cool.
Zai Jian!
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