Day 1

My feet hurt is the understatement of the century.

We walked around Beijing today to sight see and help to get over jet lag.  We braved the subway system with our amazing host student Hu.  Each subway ticket is read by a RF reader on the way in and on the way out you place it into a slot to take it back.  This system is really cool since it recycles the card as you leave and it can then be used again by another patron.

Our first adventure was through Tanggong Hutong. A hutong is a narrow street or alleyway between homes.  They were initially spacious residences of officials that decorated the doors and roof tiles according to their rank but now they have become more run down due to years and the availability of modern living spaces.  Many have been torn down but many are now protected by the government to save the cultural heritage.  While we explored our guide explained how to tell the gender of the stone lions that littered throughout Beijing: Male lions have their paw crushing a ball, while Females have their paw on a cub and a ball in their mouth.  The ball has to be carved inside and shows the talent of the carver.

Our next stop was the drum and bell towers.  The towers were used to signal time throughout the city.  We were able to catch the end of a drum show and get a view of the Beijing skyline from the balcony (albeit there was a bit a smog).  The Bell Tower sits just North and houses an enormous bell that used to be rung throughout the day marking time, but is now only rung once a year during their Spring Festival.  The steps up to the bell and drums were STEEP.  The stairs were also uneven and this was to deter enemies from storming the top levels.  

We visited the Yong He Gong Lama Temple.  This temple was built within the a palace complex and each building had different Buddhas.  The statues were huge and gorgeous.  Each temple building had altars for gifts and there were practitioners offering incense at each altar.

Our last stop during our tour was Bei Hai Park, a large Chinese garden.  It was built to imitate multiple regions of China and has a large lake and yet more steep uneven stairs to the White Temple pagoda.  Each temple we visited was gorgeously made.  This is also the location of the Nine Dragon Wall.   Which is the only wall ever found with 9 dragons on each side and smaller dragons linking around the outside totaling over 600 dragons on this single wall.  

The food here is AMAZING!!  Our host students have been fantastic about helping us order food and all of our meals have been family style with a lazy susan in the center to share.  It has been a great trying new food and learning to become competent with chop sticks. 

Best part of the day: I spent about 200 Yuan or $32.58

~Katie