More Awesome Than I Remembered

Beijing is even more amazing than I remembered, if that’s possible. Though I love Beijing, I still am very, very glad I go to school in Tianjin. The benefits of which are there are less foreigners and it’s an hour ride to Beijing for a cool weekend, right?

We left for Beijing at 5:30 to catch a bus to the Railway Station. Unfortunately, there were soooo many people trying to do the same thing. We waited for 45 minutes at the bus stop, waited 30 minutes for a cab, then thankfully found a rickshaw that we paid a ridiculous mount to not go home, and take us to the Station instead. It was a very interesting ride to say the least. He cut into bike paths, construction sites, and more but he got us there in time 🙂

I texted my German friend, Lutz, from the summer on the way over, he goes to Beijing Jiaotong University. He texted back right away that he and a bunch of friends were meeting up at bar street to drink, of course I’m always down. So even though we got into our hotel pretty late (11:00pm) I convinced my friends, Anastasia and Dasha, to go over to San Li Tun (三里屯) with me. The first difference I could see from Tianjin is the difference in prices…that cab was expensive really soon, it was only about 18 minutes away but the cab was 32RMB, which I paid for since I convinced them to come. That was my first time in China seeing no Chinese people on the streets, it was obviously a foreigner haven (not that I search for one, but if you are ever looking, that’s the place to go). I went into Nanjie Bar and he introduced me to his Russian and French friends. They all bought me a few drinks and after a while they decided to go next door to a Salsa dancing club, called Caribe. I forgot that in Beijing (and Shanghai) you have to pay to go into night clubs, this one was RELATIVELY cheap, 30 RMB. The music was good and we all danced until almost 4am. I left first to get some sleep and prepare for National Day.

We woke up later than anticipated, but luckily there was no actual parade in Tiananmen as we thought there would be, so we got ready, ate a cheap breakfast, and took the subway to Tiananmen. That day I was fully hit with the realization that there are a LOT of people in China. It was crazy, it was like walking in a line on the sidewalks, not to mention within. We took some pictures outside of the square and decided to not go inside that day, going to the Forbidden City might be better on another (less crowded) day. We then tried to find our other Nankai friends in the crush, after an hour we spotted each other and made the harrowing trip back to our hotel’s area to eat. Our hotel was right beside the Temple of Heaven, but we knew it couldn’t be as crowded as the area we were in. It took a long time but we finally made it back, we had a great traditional Chinese dinner, bought cards and alcohol, and played games in our hotel room. After they left, Anastasia, Dasha, and I decided to meet with other Nankai friends at another party area in Beijing, called Wu Dao Kou (五道口). It is the focal point of several universities, so many students love to go there and have a good time. We met Emily and Lindsay in a bar called Lush, it was pretty nice and the drinks were much cheaper than those found in night clubs. They already found a group of two German guys and a Swede who were paying for drinks, so we jumped on, haha. After a while, we started talking to two Chinese guys on our left, they bought us drinks too. It was a VERY social night, I found these beefed up Korean guys there too, they were nice but left early. So I turned back to my table, and there was this tall nice looking American guy, he’s half black, half white. I must have been drunk because I pushed away his advances and turned my attention to a shorter, German guy who just came in, Claus. In his defense, he is really smart and has awesome Chinese, so I guess I got hooked for a reason (though I regret ignoring that fine man now…). I wanted to dance, so Lindsay, Emily, our Germans (though I had the best one in terms of intelligence, personally), and I went to the bars next door, Propaganda and Sensation. The cool thing about those places is they are technically bars, with a dance floor  downstairs. So no entrance fees! I kept playing a run away game with Claus, and when he would catch me I would kind of dance with him, then run away again. It was hilarious to my tipsy mind and he seemed to enjoy it. After a few hours, we decided to leave, Lindsay and Emily were getting cozy with their guys so we went in a cab ourselves. He was a gentleman, though of course he kind of tried and I considered for a second (in all honesty I’m on the search for a European this year, it is my goal and I shall achieve!) but said no. And he was still sweet and we dropped him off first, I lived far from the place, but he paid the driver 100RMB to get me back to my hotel and I got all of the change back too 🙂 Not a bad end to a great night.

We went to the Temple of Heaven the next day, it was better than I remembered from two years ago. It almost didn’t feel like we were in a city anymore, it is huge and very relaxing. We went to a shopping district that night, but  will cover that and the Silk Market in another post. I met up with a Chinese friend from Qingdao the next day, and he treated me to a Korean BBQ buffet, it was a carnivore’s dream come to life, I was so stuffed. I will remember it always and bring Wilna/ my sisters there when they come to China. Can’t wait~

In conclusion, I love Beijing, and plan to go there every two weeks now, haha.