Chapter 41 - Beijing

Beijing Blog
Hello Again Everybody,
So my time here in china is quickly winding down and before I know it I
will be on the plane flying over the Pacific Ocean returning home.
But for now I am doing my best to enjoy every second while I am in
china because soon my time will be up here in this beautiful
country!
Well the train from Xian to Beijing was great! I slept like a baby
and it was cool to fall asleep in one part of the country and wake up in a
whole new world of china. Time well-traveled while I was fast asleep
the whole time, now that’s traveling!
Beijing has been loads of fun! It’s sad that this is my last night in
this wonderful city! I have learned so much from here and I hope that
someday I can return and finish touring it. 4 days in Beijing
isn’t it enough to see everything. We got to see quite a bit but it
was quickly rushed through and made for some really long days!
Through all the sore feet, the late nights and early mornings, for
all the subway rides and ALWAYS standing, this has be a trip of a life
time. Every place has its own story but I cant tell the story of each
so I will give you the place and a short description about and how I
experienced it.The Temple of Heaven- very nice and a very big park/garden. Sort of
reminded me of the rose gardens back in Boise. In fact there was a
rose garden section that had roses of every color. VERY BEAUTIFUL!!
This place also had people playing hacky sac, singing and live
bands. This one big group of people were all singing this song and
there were like 100 or so people singing, it was really cool.
The Summer Palace- this place was awesome! It was this park that had
a huge lake right in the middle of it. There were buildings that
had ancient furniture, and they even had this huge Buddhist temple
that overlooked the whole lake and it was amazing! It was overcast while I was there but was still beautiful with a grey sky.
The Great Wall- Overall I think was my favorite out of all
the items in Beijing. We got a cable car up to the wall and walked
down the ridge and the wall for like 2 hours. Stopped and I had a
very nice well packed lunch (thanks to our ward president’s maid). I
had a p & j sandwich, pretzels, an apple, oreo’s and to wash it all
down with a cherry coke. What an experience to have such a great
lunch in such an amazing area! Very peaceful moment on the wall.

After that I was still up on the ridge of the mountain following the
wall. Well there are 3 ways to get down back to the base of the
mountain. Walk, chairlift of a toboggan! Of course everyone knows
what I chose to get down. Yep that’s right I chose the chairlift...
NOT!!! The toboggan was so much fun!!! It was sort of like the one
at Park City in Utah but it was a riot! Afterwards I got a few shirts
in their market and that was pretty much the end of day at the Great
Wall of China!
Tiananmen Square- This is the plaza just in front of the Forbidden
City. There are serious buildings surrounding the whole area. There
are like 3 museums of China, a government building, a huge pillar that
is a monument, and the best part is a massive flag pole. At the base of
the flag pole are always 4 guards standing there. These guards hardly
ever move! They stand the way I was taught by the one police in one of
my earlier blogs about the chinese police. So they stand there in
that uncomfortable position all day. But when it gets around sun
setting time that is when the excitement happens. Around that time
the color guard for the chinese military come marching out of the
Forbidden city, walk across the blocked streets directly to the flag
pole. The walk in such unisons it looks like 24 guys were only 4
guys. Their flag ceremony is a little different. Like they don’t
fold the flag like we do and it like the military are above the normal
people watching. Like in the states I didn’t get that feeling. Like
the flag represented all of “US” but to China the flag represented
“the military”. That is just my own personal feeling but it was so
cool to see the chinese color guard!
The Forbidden City- It would be very bad to be in Beijing and not go
to the Forbidden City! It took us awhile to actually get into the
place because we went there the first day and we got there too late so
we decided to do it another. The second day our earlier plans were
pushed longer than expected and we didn’t have enough time. Third
time we were actually able to get in. It was a very nice place. Huge
place tons of walking. But got to see so much and learn a lot about
this majestic place. It was good to finally after 5 months be in the
place that most people think of when they think of China.

Beijing has been a great place and I’m sad to leave it. I was
expecting American food once in America but my first meal in Beijing
was a nice green salad (with REAL ranch), 2 hot rolls with BUTTER, and
finished by some very yummy enchiladas! Our church President has
been so helpful in letting us stay at his house and helping us get
back into normal day living in a way. Hahaha Like today I was walking
through a supermarket and was able to read all the labels and know
what I was about to buy. Its weird how my have grown use to little
things that I didn’t have back in my little town of Huayuan. I miss
it dearly and it will always be in my blood and in my heart. My
little Huayuan!
Love from the China boy
Jordan