Today was Panda day! Hannah had been looking forward to seeing a panda for the entire trip. Xiao Chen planned us an amazing itinerary for while we were in Beijing, so we went to the Beijing zoo with her as our guide. She is so sweet and would always tell us: "It is my pleasure to show my friends around my city and my country."
Once at the zoo, we went straight to the Panda exhibit. Sure enough, in black and white, were three very cute pandas. Hannah was so happy, and we were so excited to see these sweet creatures.
After spending time with the pandas, we walked around the zoo. It was so funny to see Raccoons in a cage with a Chinese description of these "wild" animals. When we told Xiao Chen that we see these animals in the wild from time to time, she was amazed. It really is a perspective thing: to her it is exotic, to us it's an annoying animal that gets into the trash.
We also saw some Zebras up close. Hannah got to pet one, and sat there in amazement of how close she was. She didn't sit for too long, because one tried to eat her panda hat!
After the zoo, we went to see Xiao Chen's University downtown Beijing. It is a very compact school, like many universities in cities. We got to see her dorm, which she shares with three other girls. After visiting her school, we went to lunch with her friend. That evening we had to move from our hotel downtown to another hotel. After that long migration to hotel number two, we were exhausted and fell right asleep.
The next day we went to the Winter Palace. It is the place where the Emperor would spend time when he wanted to escape the hustle and bustle of Beijing. It is in the modern day Beijing vicinity, but it is a huge space of land. You wouldn't know you were in one of the largest cities in Asia walking around the palace. It has a huge man made lake and several small houses on the property where the emperor could relax. Because it was close to New Year, there was a lot of festivities going on in the Winter Palace. There was ice skating, ice sculptures, ice sledding, a pop concert, and lots of vendors. It was fun to see so many festivities on the grounds, especially since we had never celebrated Chinese New Year. To be in China the week before was pretty incredible.
We also went to a part of the Palace that had many European style buildings. An Emperor requested European artisans to come and build him almost a small European town. There were quite a few buildings in the area. Many of them were destroyed however during all of the government changes of the 20th century. It was still interesting to walk around this very European area. I think its interesting that Chinese royalty wanted European buildings, while many European monarchs would request Asian style rooms, again all about perspective. Whats "exotic" to one person is normal to another.
After the Palace, we went to lunch and had this amazing BBQ fish. They served the fish whole, and I'm positive that fish was pouting! Xiao Chen said that they kill the fish and immediately cook it, so it really fresh. The fish was outstanding!
After lunch, we spent some time relaxing at our hotel. It had been a busy week and we wanted to spend some time with Xiao Chen that didn't involve running from place to place. We would leave the next day, so it was our last evening with Xiao Chen.
We went to dinner with Xiao Chen and her boyfriend. I had met him via skype, so it was great to meet him in person. He is very sweet and speaks English extremely well. He works in Beijing and lives in Xiao Chen's hometown, so they were going to leave for home for the New Year the next day. For dinner we had Hot Pot. Hot Pot is a dish where there is a large bowl with a cylinder in the middle. Hot coals are placed in the hollow part of the cylinder, and water is placed in the bowl. You then purchase whatever food you would like to cook in the bowl (beef, fish, mushroom, cabbage, etc). You cook it in this Hot Pot and eat the cooked pieces. It is a community style meal, so everyone uses their own chopsticks to get their food from the pot. It is a lot of fun and very delicious. I have never seen Hot Pot here in Korea, so it was a new experience. They did a great job picking foods for our pot.
It was interesting to hear more about life in Beijing from them. Beijing is extremely expensive, and everyone rents apartments from the government for the most part. You can get a lease on land for 70 years, but after that time, it is uncertain what would happen because it is a young program. For most people, they have to save for about ten years before they can get a decent home in Beijing. Another interesting thing is that there are so many cars in Beijing, and so many people applying for new cars, that the government has started a lottery to pick 200 people per month who can license their car. You could be on the list for a very long time considering that over 5,000 people have put their name in this lottery, and it is a new program.
After dinner, it was time to say goodbye. Goodbyes are always hard, but it is especially hard to say goodbye uncertain of the next time you would be able to see each other again. It was great to see Xiao Chen in Beijing for a few days, I hope that we will be able to see each other again sometime soon.
Saturday morning, we headed to the airport for our flight to Seoul. We said goodbye to China after a great 1 1/2 weeks touring one of the oldest and fascinating countries in the world. We were very excited to get to Korea and see the Byeons. Korea here we come!
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