What happens when 13 billion people are given a 9 day vacation at the same time?

ANSWER: You learn a valuable lesson about overcrowding, unthinkable lines, and personal space.

We're nearing up the end of our national holiday vacation. More than near I should say as it's Sunday morning now.

As of lately, the weather in Beijing has been perfect fall weather so I really couldn't see the point in traveling around the country when there's still so many things I haven't seen in the vicinity. I've been eager to see Summer Palace(an old summer resort for Empress Dowager Cixi), and the Great Wall (supposedly the only man made structure in the world that can be seen from space).

On Wednesday we headed out to Summer Palace using the transportation formula taxi - subway - bus - taxi. As we drove up and approached the entrance the shear amount of people literally made me gasp. Everyone from everywhere was here. At this point I was counting on the huge grounds the Summer Palace encompasses to swallow up some of these people so that I could actually feel like I could relax. Waiting in line to get through the gate made me nervous and uneasy, but we finally made our way in, or should I say we were finally pushed and pulled in. At some point I want to write a little about line culture here and how the sudden influx of people transitioning directly from cave life to city life has changed common mannerisms.

Summer palace is a gigantic park that includes a variety of palaces, a lake and a number of gardens. It was built in 1750, which doesn't make it that old for something in this region of the world. I have never seen so many people gathered in one place in my entire life. One of the bridges looked like a scene from the evacuation leading up to hurricane Katrina. The four of us (Luhan, myself, Angela and Mao) stuck around for a little while, rented a boat and explored by lake. This made it easier to escape the masses. All in all it's definitely a spot I want to return to, but never again on national holiday.

On Thursday, Luhan and I finally put together a little trip out to the Great Wall. There are a lot of points to visit the wall from Beijing. Some are more popular than others and given our experience from the day before, we opted for the less explored route. We made a plan to hike on the wall from one town(Jin Shan Ling) to the next (Simatai). At that point we'd stay over night, then head back to Beijing.

To get to Jin Shan Ling from Beijing we had to leave pretty early, take a bus to the last stop in Beijing, then hire a driver to take us the rest of the way. The total travel time is about 3 hours. Once we made it to the outskirts of Beijing we met a driver that was willing to take us the rest of the way. After negotiating a price we hopped into his tiny little beat up car that probably hadn't been inspected in years. Now, this is the first time I've been in a rural area of China and also the first time I've been on the highway outside the city. The type of driving behavior I witnessed still makes me cringe. First of all, these people apparently think that a two lane highway is actually 4 as they include both shoulders. On numerous occasions we passed people, and were passed by others on the shoulder. Secondly, if someone wants to pass someone else(keep in mind that this is all a two lane highway) but another car is coming at them it simply doesn't matter. The other person will either have to stop or pass by on the shoulder. It's like a racetrack and anything goes, but no one really seems to get angry.

Finally we made it in one piece and started our hike. We took cable cars to the top of the mountain to give a us a little head start. It was such a relief to find that the wall was not packed with people and that we could hike at will seeing people only now and again. It was a tough climb with some slopes as steep as climbing a ladder. The wall hasn't had many renovations in this area leaving the terrain to be worn down over the last 400 years. This stretch was a perfect day's hike and I would recommend it to anyone looking for an overnight trip to the wall.

At about five o'clock we made it to our destination, a little guest house beside the wall. We hung out there with this French guy named Frank, drank beer and watched the owner's anxious little boy kick around an empty coke can for hours.

We headed out in the morning, hit the racetrack and made it back to Beijing in one piece. You can check out my photos here

Great summary of the subprime mortgage crisis

While I am in China I still try and keep up with US news. I've been following this, but I haven't always been clear about what happened. This really summed it up for me. It only takes about 3 minutes to read. But, beware there is some graphic language in it. Check it out.

Mingling with the locals

Have you ever read the introduction to a Lonely Planet or another guide book and the author starts rambling about how their experiences living in the said city are just flourished with authentic cultural experiences everyday? For example, I remember reading in the Kyoto Lonely Planet about how the author wakes up every morning, strolls down the path of philosophy to contemplate his daily activities. Next, he heads downtown to share stories with the locals at the fish market. After having lunch and relaxing in the public bath he then sets out to watch Geishas walk by. The reality for the average traveler is far from the dreamy scenes created by our friends that write these books, but occasionally you can get a real taste as I found out yesterday.

While climbing the five flights of stairs to our walk up apartment I heard some blaring, screeching sound and I couldn't tell what it was or where it was coming from. When I got inside I opened up the window to have a listen. I could tell it was some sort of traditional music being blasted from the courtyard of the apartment building beside ours. Now, I'm usually not one for traditional music, especially the watered down acts that fill up Times Square and various other subway stations I've encountered in NYC. This being the guys from the Himalayas playing Celine Dion songs, or the Jamaican guy playing Mozart on his steel drum. But what I heard was not like anything I've heard before, which is sad, I know. It was loud, abrasive, melodic, free form music. I couldn't resist going down to have a closer look.

When I got there there were about four or five guys gathered around a table. They each had a different type of horn. I can't claim to have too much knowledge of horns, but they looked fairly unique, definitely old. I just hung out and an old lady smiled at me and kept directing me to go closer. Finally, I nudged in a little closer to where they were playing so that I could get a better view. As soon as they saw me their faces lit up and at least three people motioned for me to come over. They were clearly excited for me to be there, but it wasn't my intention to get too close, because after all, it was a little strange. They were all smoking cigarettes and drinking jasmine tea, which they continuously offered me as well as a wooden block instrument to join in on their little session. When I looked closer at their instruments I could see just how incredibly worn in their they were. They brought out all sorts of tiny little horns, changed the tips around, and even played tricks with cigarettes. My favorite part was when one of the guys just started screaming in this high pitched voice. It was hard to believe that this sound was coming from his mouth. I hung out with them for about an hour and I have to say that without a doubt this was much more interesting than anything else I've seen in Beijing so far. I managed to catch a bit on a cell phone video and I also snapped some shots with my camera.

Fall in Beijing

So, as people have told me again and again the fall is beautiful here. It hasn't rained for quite sometime and there have been plenty of blue sky days. This is a big change from the last month. The temperature has been mild as well. Everyone seems to be outside taking advantage. Our plans changed and we never made it out to the great wall or summer palace. We ended up laying low all weekend having dinner with Luhan's family on two occasions and staying out way too late on another. I finally had an "expat" night like the days in Korea. You sure do meet some interesting folk here...

We did manage to make it out to Bei Hai park which is centrally located in Beijing. It's definitely my favorite park that I've been too in the city mainly because there are trees and once you get inside the stressful sounds of bumper to bumper traffic are drowned out. There's also an enormous lake where you can rent boats.

Photos

I'm in the process of uploading photos if you want to have a look. I'll periodically update new albums with China photos. Being that we have a three day weekend in light of a Chinese holiday that Luhan can't recall we'll head out to either the great wall or summer palace. According to the Chinese, there are only a few nice weekends left before winter starts. They say fall is extremely short. I don't have a winter coat.

A little taste of home

The other day someone asked me what American food is. They wanted to know what Americans eat with examples for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I've tackled this question before on numerous occasions, but it just never gets easier. Usually I end up concluding that unless you live near a decent city the food is boring. Having traveled around quite a bit after college it didn't take me long to realize that while America topples many countries in various cultural aspects, food is not one of them.

Now, having said that, there is one meal that America does master and that's a proper breakfast. This is something that I can't live without and I'm sure that there are a few of you out there that would probably agree (J?). Unfortunately, this proper breakfast can only be taken in on occasion unless your looking for a faster route to heart disease.

We heard about a place called Grandma's Kitchen that serves up western food and specializes in American style breakfast. I've been craving it for a few weeks now and we finally made it out. My expectations are usually pretty low when it comes to western style restaurants in Asia, but Grandma's Kitchen is a gem. Hard wood floors, flowers, rafter like ceilings and grandma oriented decor set the mood for this place. My first impression was Cracker Barrel without the Cookie Cutter cheesiness feel if that makes sense. The menu has all of your favorites, so there's no need to get into details. We had a western omelette, sausage gravy/biscuits, french toast, bacon, scrambled eggs, fresh baked bread and coffee with refills. Typically the Chinese don't understand the concept of free refills.

So, when you come to visit this is where we'll go for breakfast at least once.

Gettin' into the swing of things

Sorry I haven't been updating as frequently, but really, I'm trying to be on top of it. Did I just apologize for not posting? I thought I promised myself that I wouldn't have to come to this. I've been quite busy with some mishaps and what not but all is well.

We headed out to Tiananmen Square a little while back to catch up on some of the main cultural attractions that Beijing has to offer. I thought about doing this rather quickly before the adventurous feeling of being in a new place settles down. I lived in NYC for nearly six years and I never seemed to make it to the statue of liberty, but I did make it to the Empire State building last year. Places that attract lots of people are usually just too much of a hassle for me. This is mainly because I'm really cool.

Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City which sits behind it probably require a little more time than we gave it especially if you have an interest in Chinese history. I'm not going to lie, my Chinese history knowledge is not something I'd brag about. Forbidden City has 980 different buildings and most of them have been converted into small museums/exhibits. After visiting quite a few temples around Tokyo and Kyoto I can definitely see the similarities from a historical standpoint. What I found interesting when comparing the two is that In Japan you are restricted as to where you can walk and where you can take pictures. Here in Beijing there are barely any restrictions. This leads to two totally different experiences. If you are not allowed to take a picture of something or walk beyond a certain area your curiosity will probably convince you that it's sacred and perhaps create a feeling that you're special in some way. It's also easier to preserve things and keep them natural or recreate things and keep them in perfect recreated form for decades to come. When people, and I mean thousands of people a day are allowed to roam at will, naturally wearing things down the average Joe becomes more connected to the history. They also throw Popsicle sticks around as well as bottles and candy wrappers. But in all honesty I can't decide which way is better. Growing up in the US we really don't have a history beyond 350 years. Many of the historical sites you see here are well over 1000 years old.

There are very few places left in Beijing that represent ancient China. During the cultural revolution the idea was to destroy everything that represented the old way and replace it with a gigantic pink apartment building. Well, the apartment buildings didn't come for sometime after, but..

By far, the best thing about Tiananmen Square is called the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall. I state this with full confidence even though I haven't actually been there yet. We tried to get in, but it's only open in the morning. This, I kid you not is where Mao's body is on display inside a crystal coffin. He's been preserved in the same way your buddy preserved his first deer kill. People wait in a line to have a look at the guy who's been resting for nearly 35 years. I will get there soon!!

Above are some pictures inside Forbidden City.