Summer Palace

May 16, 2011

Early on in the acupuncture course, we voted to move our “weekend” to Monday and Tuesday. The idea was to take advantage of our flexible schedule and plan touristy things on the week days when stuff would be less crowded. During my brief time in China, I hadn’t noticed a big difference in crowds on week days vs. weekends, but whatever. So we made it through 7 days of school, and finally our “weekend” arrived on Monday!

I enjoyed a lazy start to the day: slept late, tried to organize the messy explosion from my suitcase, sent a few emails, drank a few beers… Finally, in the early afternoon, we took off for the Summer Palace. It was a beautiful afternoon and we enjoyed strolling around the lake, pausing here and there to just relax and take in the sights. I could definitely see the appeal of the area as a summer resort for Chinese royalty.

Chinese noodles

Relaxing at the Summer Palace

More relaxing at the Summer Palace

The Long Corridor

It was a windy day at the Summer Palace

Rickshaw!

After leaving the park, we hailed a rickshaw to take us to the nearest subway station. The three of us piled in the back was definitely a fun ride! We made a mistake in not agreeing on a fare beforehand, and our driver tried to massively overcharge us when we got off. Even granting him some extra for hauling all three of us, he was asking too much. We were helped in our exchange by a subway security guard, who was successful in running off the tourist-hassling rickshaw driver after we had paid him a much more than fair fare.

We decided to head towards the 798 Art District to see China’s version of SoHo.  When we got off the subway, we estimated we still had about 3km to travel to get to the district. We first tried to hire a taxi, but were turned off by the prices and decided to walk. This turned out to not be a great idea, as the street we were on became a major highway. We trudged along the shoulder, tired and hungry, and some of us who shall remain nameless stopped to pee in the bushes. We’d finally had enough of this form of travel when we came to a bus station. We boarded a bus that seemed to be heading in the right direction and got off at what seemed to be a stop relatively close to the art district. And then we trudged some more… it’s possible our estimation of distances had been off… When we finally arrived in the right area it was around 9pm and all the art galleries were closed as were many of the cafes – it was disappointing, especially after the several hours time we had spent working to get there. Proving that even in Beijing, it’s a small world after all, we ran into some of our friends who were finishing up dinner. So we ate and had a few drinks and decided 798 must surely be cooler in the daytime.