包子， The Great Wall, and Host Families

After we arrived in Beijing, we hopped on a bus and went to our first hotel: 金枫酒店，or the Golden Maple hotel.  I forgot to take pictures of the rooms, but this hotel was very nice, and had anything you needed, except for a decent Wi-Fi connection.  Here's the sign on the outside of the hotel:

金枫酒店/jīn fēng jiǔ diàn

After a good night's sleep, both Will and I woke up around 6:00 in the morning.  What I would give to be able to do that back home!  Anyway, the skyline was beautiful, and we could see some skyscrapers from our window.  This morning, you could actually see the sky really well, and there was very little smog in the sky, which, according to our tour guide, is pretty unheard of.  That morning, we turned on the TV and watched some news to try and see how many words we could understand.  There was a piece on CCTV (Central China TV) about the Nepal earthquake, and how China had provided a whole lot of aid to the Nepalese. 

We met everyone else down in the lobby and afterwards, we walked to a restaurant that Tao (my professor) said was incredibly famous because Chinese President Xi Jingpin ate there once. Here's the sign outside:

This sign uses Traditional Chinese characters, as opposed to the Simplified ones that you will see nearly everywhere else.

Once we got inside, I could smell the delicious aromas of the steamed buns (包子, bāo zi).  We pushed a whole bunch of tables together, sat down, and began to eat.  Here are some pictures of what we had for breakfast that morning:

Here you can see the 包子.  They're made of a meat filling encased in a dough casing.

 On the left you can see several bowls of rice porridge, flavored with red dates.  We had something very similar at 森林湖 (Chinese Language Village) except I think that this tastes better.  On the right, you can see more 包子 and some eggs that were boiled in tea.  These taste just like hard-boiled eggs, except there is just a hint of tea flavor, they're very delicious.

Let's see if I can remember what all these things are.  (Clockwise, from bottom left) Some vegetable with which I'm not familiar, green onions with peanuts, potato "noodles", some sort of cured beef, and pork skin.

Here's some more:  (Again, clockwise from bottom left) Cucumber, pork skin in gelatin, some kind of bean, seaweed, bitter melon (this really lives up to its name), spinach and peanuts.

Me with a 饺子 (jiǎo zi), or a steamed dumpling.  You may know them as "Potstickers" back in the US.

The inside of one of the steamed buns.

Will sure likes his 饺子.

Tao says that this is a very typical Chinese breakfast.  We noticed on the wall there was a huge poster.  I haven't figured out the meaning yet, maybe those of you who are fluent can help me out:

I'm pretty sure it says something along the lines of "Beijing's Qing Feng steamed buns are fragrant."  I'm not quite sure what “吃四方" means in this context.  I guess I'll figure it out at some point.  I'll let you guys know.

After we got back to the hotel, we boarded the bus again and this time, we left the city to go to the 八达岭 (bādálǐng, eight ridges) great wall, just north of Beijing.  Here are some pictures I took on the way:

The building under construction on the left confuses me a little.  On the building, it says 绿地中心，(lǜ dì zhōng xīn) which literally translates as "greenery center."  Not quite sure what that means.

 Lots of apartments.

 More apartments.

 Here's where we started to get out of the city.  You can see the mountains really start to crop up.

 There are some really beautiful ridges and passes in the mountains.

 Finally, we could start to see the Great Wall off in the distance.  This picture is pretty zoomed in.

 More pics of the great wall.

 More mountains.

 I thought this looked pretty neat.

 More Great Wall pics.

There are a TON of people that come to climb the great wall.  

Finally, we arrived at the Great Wall.  We took some pictures in the entrance area.

Some soldiers(?) were posing with this flag.

Obligatory flag picture.

 Paige just being fabulous.

 As we started to climb the great wall, we saw the challenges ahead of us.

 There were some REALLY steep inclines, sometimes as much as 45 degrees or more.

 Distance shot of the Great Wall.

After much toil and hard work, I finally made it to the top of the Great Wall.  This is the last tower in the 八达岭 great wall, and it is pretty high up.  I will admit that I suffered from some mild altitude sickness  a bit earlier, but I overcame that and made it all the way.  I just had to take a selfie.  The only thing is, I left my Niblet at home so I'll have to photoshop one in.

 This is the gate at the entrance to the great wall.  The characters are traditional, and are read right to left.  They're kind of blurry so I can't make out what they say. 

KFC!

 Here is an inscription next to the gate.  It reads:  

"National Cultural Relics Preservation Unit

Great Wall- Badaling

People's Republic of China

(dedicated?) on March 4, 1961

Beijing Cultural Site Administration, Erected July 1981"

UNESCO dedication.

Here's the other side of the gate pictured above.  Again, traditional characters here and these are read right to left.  These read: "Northern Gateway"

 Here's another inscription next to the gate. I'll post the translation later.

After we got back from the great wall, we drove by the Olympic Stadium and we decided to go in and take a few pictures.  The 2008 Beijing Olympics were held here.

 Here's the Water Cube, the place where all the aquatic events happened.

 Some Olympic Tower, the function of which is unknown.

Close up of the Water Cube

Water Cube on the right, and you can start to see the Bird's Nest in the background.

Ditto.

Here's the Birds Nest, the big Olympic Stadium where all the ceremonies were held.

Some interesting piece of art nearby.

Over the top of the Water Cube, you can see the very curvatious IBM tower.

A cute baby.

Looks like they forgot to water this section of plants.

We took a lot of group pictures today, but I don't have any of them right now. I'll get them from Tao and try to post them on here as time permits.

After we got back from the Olympic Stadium, we went to go meet our host families!  I was really nervous but also very excited to meet my host family.  My host family lives in the western part of Beijing, in a really nice subdivision called "We".  My room is REALLY big and very nice, it feels like I'm living in a 5-star hotel or a mansion!  For dinner, we had a Korean-style beef curry (not spicy at all, unlike Indian curry.)  It had carrots and potatoes too.  We also had cauliflower, rice, and a whole bunch of other vegetables I can't remember.  For dessert we had dragon fruit and honeydew melon.  It was delicious.

After dinner, I played Monopoly with my new host brothers, Oscar and Daniel, ages 14 and 6 respectively.  They both are studying English, so they are valuable resources if I can't remember how to say something in Chinese, which is the only language that the rest of the family speaks.  After Monopoly, I went to bed at about 9:30 and woke up around 1 AM.  I've since been writing this blog post because I can't get back to sleep!  I'll probably wake up around 8 AM tomorrow for a sightseeing tour of Beijing with my host family.  I can't wait!  

Until next time,

Ben