[postlink]https://beenaroundtheworld.blogspot.com/2010/03/beijing-great-wall.html[/postlink]endofvid
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We caught an early morning flight for Beijing the next day (February 18th). The airplane food was pretty interesting; they served bird’s nest soup, mini jellied eggs, a spicy fish sandwich, and spicy cabbage. Flavor combinations and textures that we pretty unfamiliar to my palette, but overall not bad at all .The full 4-day/3-night was as follows:
• Day 1: Temple of Heaven, Trishaw ride around Hutong District, Jiaozi (dumpling) dinner with local family
• Day 2: Tian’men Square and Forbidden City, Service visit at Guan’ai Migrant School in Shunyi, shopping at the Silk Market
• Day 3: Drive past '08 Olympics area (bird's nest and ice cube), Beijing International Kungfu School, Badaling section of Great Wall (cable car up, toboggan down), Chinese acrobatic show
• Day 4: Early morning flight to Hong Kong
I had an amazing time in Beijing. The Temple of Heaven was an unexpectedly great time. I didn’t know much about the Temple going in and so didn’t know what to expect. Before reaching the temple, we walked through the inner courtyard where hundreds of elderly Chinese men and women were gathered singing, dancing, and playing games together. We were able to join in the dancing and the playing of shuttlecock, a game that’s almost identical to hacky sack, but that is played with a feathered contraption instead of a beanbag. It was great to see such a sense of community, especially among the elderly. Elderly people in China seem to be more fit and much happier than their western counterparts. The smiling faces of elderly people would be an image that I would revisit many times in China, whether it was on the faces of elderly people strolling with their grandchildren or doing early morning group Tai Chai (very slow-paced, controlled martial arts) in the park. I suspect that the replacement of senior citizen homes with family time and very active communal activities greatly attributes to this. The service visit at the Guan’ai School for children was another great highlight. Students at Guang’ai School are either orphans or have parents that have committed crimes. Due to their family’s dishonorable past, they are ineligible for government subsidies and subject to discrimination within society. We met the school’s inspirational founder, Shi Qinghua. He is not a rich man by any means, but was able to build the school (which currently houses 103 homeless children) four years ago. We donated and installed a couple of computers, and helped clean the school premises. We also got a chance to play with the kids and have a big tug of war tournament. Lasting only a few hours, the visit was brief (far too brief) but very meaningful and fun. The third highlight from the trip was visiting the Great Wall of China. It’s a place that I never fathomed being able to visit so early in my life. I had a blast riding up the cable car all the way up the wall and riding the toboggan (metal sled) all the way down part of the wall. The view from the wall was amazingly beautiful. It’s not until you’re actually on the wall do you realize why it’s one of the 7 wonders of the world. It’s so HIGH UP and well built. It was difficult for me to wrap my head around the fact that it was built more than 15 centuries ago, by HAND, and it’s still standing till this day. More than 300,000 men worked for 10 years to complete it and thousands died in the process. It’s a permanent reminder of the magnificent feats and miracles that human beings are able to accomplish, should they only resolve to. It made me want to stop stuffing my face w. food and enjoying...and actually do something of substance. But then it was time to go to dinner lol.
• New food loves: REAL Chinese food, pretty much everything I ate in Shanghai, DUMPLINGS, roasted goose, warm milk tea with tapioca balls, pork/shrimp dim sum, and warm Chinese bread w. butter and ice cream on top (sounds strange, but its soo good.)
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[starttext]
We caught an early morning flight for Beijing the next day (February 18th). The airplane food was pretty interesting; they served bird’s nest soup, mini jellied eggs, a spicy fish sandwich, and spicy cabbage. Flavor combinations and textures that we pretty unfamiliar to my palette, but overall not bad at all .The full 4-day/3-night was as follows:
• Day 1: Temple of Heaven, Trishaw ride around Hutong District, Jiaozi (dumpling) dinner with local family
• Day 2: Tian’men Square and Forbidden City, Service visit at Guan’ai Migrant School in Shunyi, shopping at the Silk Market
• Day 3: Drive past '08 Olympics area (bird's nest and ice cube), Beijing International Kungfu School, Badaling section of Great Wall (cable car up, toboggan down), Chinese acrobatic show
• Day 4: Early morning flight to Hong Kong
I had an amazing time in Beijing. The Temple of Heaven was an unexpectedly great time. I didn’t know much about the Temple going in and so didn’t know what to expect. Before reaching the temple, we walked through the inner courtyard where hundreds of elderly Chinese men and women were gathered singing, dancing, and playing games together. We were able to join in the dancing and the playing of shuttlecock, a game that’s almost identical to hacky sack, but that is played with a feathered contraption instead of a beanbag. It was great to see such a sense of community, especially among the elderly. Elderly people in China seem to be more fit and much happier than their western counterparts. The smiling faces of elderly people would be an image that I would revisit many times in China, whether it was on the faces of elderly people strolling with their grandchildren or doing early morning group Tai Chai (very slow-paced, controlled martial arts) in the park. I suspect that the replacement of senior citizen homes with family time and very active communal activities greatly attributes to this. The service visit at the Guan’ai School for children was another great highlight. Students at Guang’ai School are either orphans or have parents that have committed crimes. Due to their family’s dishonorable past, they are ineligible for government subsidies and subject to discrimination within society. We met the school’s inspirational founder, Shi Qinghua. He is not a rich man by any means, but was able to build the school (which currently houses 103 homeless children) four years ago. We donated and installed a couple of computers, and helped clean the school premises. We also got a chance to play with the kids and have a big tug of war tournament. Lasting only a few hours, the visit was brief (far too brief) but very meaningful and fun. The third highlight from the trip was visiting the Great Wall of China. It’s a place that I never fathomed being able to visit so early in my life. I had a blast riding up the cable car all the way up the wall and riding the toboggan (metal sled) all the way down part of the wall. The view from the wall was amazingly beautiful. It’s not until you’re actually on the wall do you realize why it’s one of the 7 wonders of the world. It’s so HIGH UP and well built. It was difficult for me to wrap my head around the fact that it was built more than 15 centuries ago, by HAND, and it’s still standing till this day. More than 300,000 men worked for 10 years to complete it and thousands died in the process. It’s a permanent reminder of the magnificent feats and miracles that human beings are able to accomplish, should they only resolve to. It made me want to stop stuffing my face w. food and enjoying...and actually do something of substance. But then it was time to go to dinner lol.
• New food loves: REAL Chinese food, pretty much everything I ate in Shanghai, DUMPLINGS, roasted goose, warm milk tea with tapioca balls, pork/shrimp dim sum, and warm Chinese bread w. butter and ice cream on top (sounds strange, but its soo good.)
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1 comment:
mann i love bird's nest soup too even IF its made from spit!!! <333
i eat it like once every monthish and used to bought from website hongkong-bird-nest.50webs.com/index_e.htm sometimes, my mom went back to hong kong and bought a full suitcase of it cause its cheaper there XD
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