{"id":396,"date":"2010-01-25T00:13:28","date_gmt":"2010-01-24T16:13:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/?p=396"},"modified":"2010-01-25T10:38:36","modified_gmt":"2010-01-25T02:38:36","slug":"resident-tourist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/?p=396","title":{"rendered":"Resident Tourist"},"content":{"rendered":"

After arriving home from my travels up-north (that one was for all you Wisconsinites out there), I had the opportunity to be a tourist in my own town.\u00a0 A traveling companion from Yinchuan was staying in Beijing for a couple of days and I took that opportunity to join him on some of his wanderings around the capital city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After getting to bed pretty late on Wednesday when we got back from Haerbin, we decided that it would be nice to sleep in a bit.\u00a0 However, that didn’t really happen.\u00a0 We ended up waking up fairly early and decided to make the most of it by going everywhere in Beijing.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 He had not seen the city yet so I was sort of his tour guide.\u00a0 Not that he couldn’t have figured it out without me but it helped to have someone who knows the city a little.\u00a0 We began by visiting the site of the olympics.\u00a0 It was really fun to hang out with someone who was so laid back about things and didn’t mind what he accomplished during the day.\u00a0 He didn’t have any particular ‘goals’ to meet and this made the day relaxed and enjoyable!<\/p>\n

\"I

I had not been there during the day yet, so it was fun to see the buildings in the sunlight! <\/p><\/div>\n

After the olympics we decided to hit the electronics market.\u00a0 This is one of my least favorite places in China.\u00a0 There are way too many people and it gets really annoying when the vendors try to pull you (literally) into their booth to buy something.\u00a0 The only thing we were looking for was a cord to charge his DS.\u00a0 He needed one that would work in China.\u00a0 We found him the charger and then we were off to lunch with my dear friend Fiona.\u00a0 Lunch was at one of my favorite restaurants near the university where I teach.\u00a0 The company was great, the food was wonderful!\u00a0 It was just really nice.\u00a0 I coudn’t have asked for it to be better.<\/p>\n

After lunch, Fiona left and the two of us found ourselves on the subway to the Forbidden City.\u00a0 We met his friend Zhai Li there and were going to meet a few other Meiguoren so that they could do a tour of the Forbidden City.\u00a0\u00a0They were pretty caught up in their shopping at the pearl market, so instead of touring the Forbidden City, the three of us wandered around Tian’anmen Square, took some pictures and journeyed to meet them at the pearl market.\u00a0 I think I like this market more than the other markets I’ve been to.\u00a0 It’s basically the same thing as the silk market but with more pearls and less silk. (I know that last statement seems really obvious, but if you ever come to visit, you’ll know what I mean.)\u00a0 Below are some of the photos from my wanderings around Tian’anmen Square:<\/p>\n

\"Things

Things I love about this photo: 1) Blue sky! 2) No people 3) Mao's mole 4) The abundance of open space<\/p><\/div>\n

I\u00a0had been to\u00a0Tian’anmen before but it was on a much\u00a0drearier day.\u00a0\u00a0I could not have asked for a more beautiful sky that day.\u00a0 It was still\u00a0bitterly cold out, but I’ll take the blue sky!<\/p>\n

Sites from the Square include:<\/p>\n

\"Can

Can you tell from which direction the sun was coming? This was taken on the same day as the previous one but facing southwest. This is Chairman Mao's mausoleum. Affectionately dubbed the 'Maosoleum' by many of my friends. \ud83d\ude42 Inside you can view Mao's 'body'. I haven't had the desire to go in or the patience to wait in line. <\/p><\/div>\n

\"This

This is facing directly west toward the Great Hall of the People. To my left is the Maosoleum, to my right is Tian'anmen, and behind me is the National Museum of China. It's handy having red as my favorite color. Many, many things are red in China. <\/p><\/div>\n

\"I

I wonder why the flags don't have the stars on them. <\/p><\/div>\n

\"This

This is the Monument to the People's Heroes. The reason I took the picture was because the sun was causing the text on the side of it to glimmer. It was really cool in person but very hard to capture in a photograph!<\/p><\/div>\n

After the market we went to JingShanGongYuan \u7adf\u5c71\u516c\u5143 which is a little hill (they call it a mountain) in the middle of the city.\u00a0 From the top of this mountain you can see almost the whole city.\u00a0 It was dark by the time we got to the south gate but we thought that it would be pretty cool to see the city at night.\u00a0 The rest of the crew was excited to see the Forbidden City from above because they didn’t get to see it during the afternoon.\u00a0 I was just excited to see Beijing from up high!\u00a0 We got to the top (after only about five minutes of\u00a0climbing) and realized that there were no lights in the Forbidden City.\u00a0 (We should have known this but none of us thought of it.)\u00a0 It was really easy to ‘see’ the Forbidden City because it was a giant black square among all of the city lights.\u00a0 I have a few not-so-great photos from on top of JingShan \u7adf\u5c71 that I will show you below:<\/p>\n

\"Here

Here is a view of the Forbidden City from Jingshan gongyuan. This was at about 7:00 pm. Yes that very large black area is the Forbidden City. Just for future reference, there aren't any lights. \ud83d\ude42 In the background you can see the lights of the Great Hall of the People. <\/p><\/div>\n

\"This

This is basically the same photo but taken with a much longer shutter. This is so you can see the egg-shaped building in the right of the background of the picture. This building is the Grand National Theater. I fully intend to take in a concert or two at that building! Forbidden City = still dark. Even with a long shutter.<\/p><\/div>\n

After we climbed back down, we took a bus to the nearest subway station and took the subway to a popular foreigner restaurant for supper.\u00a0 After that, three of us\u00a0decided to go have some\u00a0chuar \u4e32 at a favorite restaurant of mine.\u00a0 The chuar and the company were both awesome!\u00a0<\/p>\n

The next day was some more shopping and time with friends.\u00a0 We visited a scroll shop and I designed my very own scroll.\u00a0 It is a gift for someone but I won’t say who. \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 It was nice to have visitors to the city.\u00a0 I’m looking forward to the next round of visitors this coming weekend!<\/p>\n

The past few days have also been wonderful.\u00a0 Friday after my guest left, two of my dear Chinese friends came over for some hanging-out\/playing a game time.\u00a0 It was really fun just to visit with them and get to know them better.\u00a0 They were here until 1:30!\u00a0 We didn’t even realize that it got that late.\u00a0 Must have been all of the fun we were having. \ud83d\ude42\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"This

This is my friend Peter. He was explaining to me why China is called the 'Middle Kingdom'. We were also practicing some Chinese. He was teaching me the characters for the colors and how to say them.<\/p><\/div>\n

Saturday was spent relaxing around my apartment, editing photos, and updating my blog.\u00a0 Much needed doing-nothing time. \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 That night, I met my friend Kevin for supper and then he came over for a movie.\u00a0 We got about halfway through the movie and he said, ‘I think you are very tired.’\u00a0 He was right.\u00a0 Then, being the gentleman that he is, he decided to leave so that I could go to bed.\u00a0 The next morning I went to the Haidian Chr**tian Church with three Chinese friends.\u00a0 It was interesting to listen to the speaker.\u00a0 After lunch they all wanted to come over to play a game!\u00a0 We taught Zhai Li how to play Phase 10 because the other two knew how to play already.\u00a0 The afternoon turned into the evening.\u00a0 That evening, my plan was to make ‘American’ food for my friend Ross.\u00a0 So I asked if the the three of them wanted to stick around.\u00a0 I made them pancakes and scrambled eggs.\u00a0 Not much, but semi-easy to do.\u00a0 The food turned out okay and my guests were gracious and said it was ‘hao chi.’ (delicious)\u00a0 The rest of the evening was spent munching on oranges and playing Catch Phrase, which is hilarious with four Chinese people!!\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
\"This

This is the church we went to on Sunday morning. After church, the four of us had a good chat about the service. <\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Hope you all had a refreshing weekend!\u00a0 HIS blessings to you all!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After arriving home from my travels up-north (that one was for all you Wisconsinites out there), I had the opportunity to be a tourist in my own town.\u00a0 A traveling companion from Yinchuan was staying in Beijing for a couple of days and I took that opportunity to join him on some of his wanderings […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=396"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":411,"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396\/revisions\/411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}