Beijing

7/30/2008

Sleeper Train- this was so fun! We got a soft sleeper car for the 12 hour train ride. It had 4 beds but it was pretty fun to cram all our luggage- I had to sleep with my legs propped up to fit on the bed :)

I got to see the Forbidden City and Tianammen Square. Forbidden City was pretty huge and actually not a whole lot to see- all the buildings look similar. Tianammen Sq. was also just a square- not much to see. There are a lot of Olympic things going up which makes it a bit more lively.

We went to another Buddist temple- Lama Temple and to the Temple of Heaven. Nothing really exciting to write about though- more just documenting so I remember what I did :) But here is a picture of us eating our daily ice cream.

The subways are really great here- most are very clean and make it easy to maneuver around the city. I think they have added a few new lines to help out with the Olympic traffic.

At night we went to see the Chinese acrobatic show which was really awesome- I can't believe what some people can do with their bodies!

Wangfujing Snack Street- looked for scorpion but couldn’t find it. They had big beatles and worms but I couldn’t bring myself to eat any of those. We did try a lot of other fun snacks though. There is something exciting about ordering and taking a bite of food without knowing what it is at all. Erin ordered a squid kebab so I did try a bit of that- very chewy. I finally did find the scorpions on another day but I wasn't with all the group so I lost my nerve to eat it!