Beijing

Today was our first full day in China. We flew into Beijing around 10 PM local time last night and by the time we went through customs, picked up our bags, exchanged our currency, got a cab to the hotel, checked in and went to sleep, it was well after midnight. We didn't get a ton of sleep - partially thanks to the late arrival time and partially thanks to the rock hard beds that are apparently the norm in China - but we only have a few days here in Beijing before my TEFL class starts on Tuesday. So we sucked it up and got up at 6:00 to get as much touristy stuff out of the way as we could. But before we did that, our first task was to get our train tickets from Beijing to Kunshan for next Tuesday, the 13th. After a complementary breakfast at the hotel, we pretty much just started wandering around town aimlessly looking for the train station. We (tried to) ask a few locals if they knew where the station was but even with the help of a translation book, we got absolutely nowhere. We finally just hailed a cab and showed the driver the Mandarin word for "Train Station" in the book and he just happened to take us to the one we needed. It was more luck than anything.

The main Beijing Railway Station is a massive cluster of people and without knowing how to speak Mandarin, it was quite a challenge to navigate our way through it. We talked to three different workers before we finally figured out where the ticket office was. Even then, we had to stand in several different lines before we found someone who spoke English. In the end though, we were able to get our tickets and be on our way. From there, we did more walking around the town center, ate lunch, and eventually made it to Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City. We actually only went into the park/courtyard surrounding the Forbidden City, but that is very beautiful on its own. By the time we walked all around the park, it was getting hot and we had already done a ton of walking for the day. We decided to head back to the hotel and save the City itself, as well as a few other tourist attractions for tomorrow. There are several other parks we would like to see and it turns out the National Stadium where the Olympics were held is only a few miles from our hotel. I would like to go there as well. We're going to try to see as much as we can tomorrow since I will be starting my course the following day. We're also going to take a stab at the subway system instead of taking cabs everywhere. Even though they're considerably cheaper than cabs in the US, they can still add up - especially since Beijing is such a huge city. We picked up a city map that has a pretty good explanation/schedule of the subway system and we're confident we can figure it out.

All in all, we both think we had a successful first day. We saw some great sights and learned a lot about how to communicate and interact with the locals. The language barrier is definitely going to be the most frustrating thing about this whole experience. In those first few hours of walking around we literally couldn't find anyone who spoke a word of English, but at the train station and closer to the city's center we had better luck. Other than that it really doesn't seem a ton different than any other city. We're back at the hotel to recharge for the evening then we will be back at it tomorrow!

Hunter