Happy Dragon (China Trip Part 1)

Saturday, January 4th  
Our trip started with an unexpected twist. We got to the airport two hours early to find that our first flight had been delayed indefinitely.  They booked us on the next flight to Beijing (no stops) and we got there faster than the original flight plans. We made it to our Happy Dragon Hostel, met our roommates, explored a little and passed out.

 

Sunday, January 5th
We were woken up early on our first full day in China by our roommates getting ready for their Great Wall adventure. I decided to stay awake and check our agenda for the day and make sure everything was in order.

I booked tickets to see an acrobatic show, Our Trip to the Great Wall, and found out some great places to visit and eat!

I got Nick up (only by mentioning OJ) and we ate a terrific breakfast at the Dragon (what we call our hostel)


We met some really cool people a young couple from England, Nathan and India. They sold everything they had and saved money for a long time just to travel for 6 months. She is 19 and he is 23, WOW!! Nick and I were really shocked by their daringness to live life and to seek adventures. We met them during breakfast and friendship struck from there. You can read their travel blog here.

We got dressed in extra warm clothes and went exploring. We walked about two miles to reach our destination Tiananmen Square. I wasn't really sure what to expect and it wasn't until moments ago when I looked it up on Wiki, that I understood what the heck I had seen. We did not walk the square  much today because we went straight into the Forbidden City. It was a lot of walking, but it was beautiful.

Forbidden City was built in 1415 during the Ming Dynasty. It was the imperial palace the complex consists of 980 buildings and covers 7,800,000 sq ft. The palace complex exemplifies traditional Chinese palatial architecture, and has influenced cultural and architectural developments in East Asia and elsewhere. Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987, and is listed by UNESCO as the collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world. (Wiki)

We got off the beaten path, for some of the roads less traveled and glad we did or we would have never of found the costume booth. We paid almost nothing to dress up and take pictures. The Chinese people thought it was hilarious that foreigners would dress up. We had our picture taken many times.

When we finished exploring the Forbidden city we stopped at the museum shop. We found some items that we have been looking for and purchased them.


If you have ever been to China you know one thing.. The people there will pretty much do anything for you to look at them and buy their stuff. This was really hard for Nick because he just wanted to look, but looking came at a price here. They basically harassed you until you walked away, and even then sometimes they would walk after you. It really drove me crazy, if you even looked lost you would be attacked by taxi drivers, scooter people, street vendor and more. It didn't take long before Nick and I to started mapping out a dodging plan. If we noticed a ton of people ahead we talked about our plan to get around them and 9 times out of 10 we made it.


Right before we left the Forbidden City we were approached by a lady with who introduced herself, holding her badge, as an employee then asked us if we wanted to look at her art collection. AKA she saw that we had already purchased something and wanted us to buy her stuff. (LET me backtrack a few hours) Right after breakfast Nick and I had read a warning for foreigners about a scam that was being ran at the Square and Forbidden City. Someone would walk up to you and be friendly wanting to chat, then they invite you to tea. They would take you to a tea place in the palace area and then leave you to pay the crazy expensive bill. (Back to my story) When this lady approached my red flags went up but Nick said sure, so we followed her and they she unlocked a red door. Behind it was some people just sitting until we came in they all jumped to their feet. We went into a little room as she showed us some of her 'original' art (That looked exactly like the paintings we just bought from the museum shop) When she started talking prices Nick cut her off and said we were not interested and we walked back through the door we came in.

Next we were bombarded by a ton of men and women trying to sell everything and anything to us. We looked down, pretended we did NOT speak English and kept walking.

What an experience.


On the walk back to the Dragon we stopped at a little mom and pop noodle restaurant and just randomly pointed at food, and we weren't disappointed.

 I (Lauren) Had big fat noodles ( I swear it was just one extremely long noodle) Mine tasted the best!!

Nick's choice had more of a vinegar taste to it, still it wasn't bad,  and he ate it tofu and all.

We got to the Dragon and passed out for a couple of hours. 

When we woke up we quickly got ready for our acrobatic show. Sorry we don't have picture for this, but it was really good and hilarious. 

After it was over we took the subway to Wangfujing (night shopping street) and explored it a little before it closed (15 minutes later) We had heard all kinds of things about this crazy street and it lived up to the craziness. They had scorpions, lizards, snakes, cocoons, centipedes, seahorses, starfish, and more on sticks ready to be consumed by someone daring enough to do so. I passed on these.

We walked the long mile back to our place stopping by a Mcdonalds because we were both starving.
We had such a busy first full day in Beijing, China but we were so ready for the adventures upcoming!
Next update The Great Wall!!