Beijing

i'm back from Beijing. it was so cold. i'm not sure about my photos. it was just ~that~ cold that i shied away from taking lots of photos. and i didn't write a single thing! i was with a tour group nearly the entire time. there was one time that the group went to the Pearl Market (not my thing) so i left the building and walked around and took pictures. that reminded me of how i like to travel. the group tour was convenient since everything was planned and booked and i didn't have to organize a thing but i much rather experience a new place on my own, and on my feet. a place looks so different from the windows of a tour bus than it does from the flat of the street.

anyway, we did a ton of stuff:

Acrobats show
Great Wall of China
Olympic Village (Bird's Nest and the Water Cube)
Traditional Tea House (Lao She Tea House) where we saw some Peking Opera, Traditional Tea Ceremonies, some Kung Fu, more acrobats (bendy girls) and comedians
Forbidden City
Temple of Heaven
Tienanmen Square
Pear Market
Hutong (old Beijing housing)
Drum Tower


the day that i left for the airport i was sick. the day before i had caught a head cold, or 24 hour flu, i don't know. everyone at work was coughing too. not counting the Vietnam trip, i haven't been sick in a long time and i've convinced myself that it has to do with all the sweets and unhealthy food that i've been eating for Thanksgiving. not enough fruit and veggies and too much refined sugars (cakes, pies, cookies, chocolate, etc) and not taking my vitamins regularly.

anyway, i stood in line at the airport to check-in for over an hour, unable to keep my eyes open or fixed on any one thing, squatting every moment i could hugging my roller luggage to keep me from falling on the floor ~ i'm sure from the outside i looked very much like i was drunk or had a severe hangover. eventually i was the fourth from the front of the hellishly long line i had been suffering though when all of a sudden i felt the urge to throw up. i had no choice. i had to get out of line. i'm sure all the color left my face. i headed straight for the bathroom, motioning with my arm for everyone to get out of my way, extra maneuvering around people and objects was surely going to cause a volcanic eruption i worried. on my short trip there i felt like i was going to pass out and had to tell myself to breath through it and to ignore the wet lip! i got to the toilet but was surprised to feel that the sensation had subsided. i rested a bit on the toilet and tryined to regain my composure but i felt like a zombie. after a few minutes behind a locked bathroom stall door i started to feel well enough to start planning and so i started thinking about how i could get my freaking bag checked in without have to re-stand in that long check-in line. i came up with a few plans and mustered up enough energy to get out of the bathroom, hoping that i wouldn't have to come back. none of my plans worked out: checking in at the self-check kiosk didn't work because i was traveling to a country that required a visa (and therefore, i'm assuming, it had to be checked by a person at check-in), and checking in at the oversized luggage counter didn't work either ... though later i noticed with disdain how the same gentleman that told me i couldn't check-in at that counter eventually split the remaining check-in line that i was now standing in for the second time and sent everyone after me (of course) to the oversized luggage counter to check-in their baggage.

anyway, i got checked in and got on the plane just in time. found my seat and slumped over into the neighboring empty seat and passed out. no food, no headphones, no nothing. the flight attendant brought me two pillows and two blankets and out i went. the fact that my shirt was creeping up as i was extended in an awkward side bend position, exposing some of my belly rolls, i didn't care ONE BIT! i don't even remember the flight or getting off the plane.

i checked into the hotel with the group and then went back to bed for the rest of the day. got up for the acrobat show and was feeling much better but a head cold still lingers though it's on it way out of my system leaving me about to be more focused on neurotically obsessing about my foot cramp.

i have a terrible foot cramp still from walking around in insufficient footwear for winter in Beijing temperatures and i'm not sure how to nurse this back to health in time for Salsa tonight. i soaked it in hot water last night and then applied tiger balm before bed but this morning it still hurts which is why i woke up and logged online ~ to do some internet research but got caught up bitching about stuff on my blog.

anyway, i want to go back to Beijing in the Spring or Summer when it's warmer and when i'm not sick. it would have been an awesome city to explore on foot had conditions been more favorable. the city has lots of points of interests and unique cultural stories like the one _birth_ policy (exceptions for the minority groups living in China), the construction of the Great Wall (and the "wall culture"), the Beijing city wall and it gates, the ring roads, the story of the "power behind the curtain", the hutongs (old Beijing neighborhoods with narrow alleyways and 100 year old houses) that are being preserved as historical landmarks, and so much more. the people seemed nice. they would at least smile when they stared. and it was funny ~ several times we were being photographed by Chinese people (i guess they could have been visitors too though). and out on the Wall, these people, i don't know how they can withstand the weather conditions, but they do, these sellers and merchants and hawkers. their skin was dark but it seemed leathered by the wind rather than tanned by the sun, their bare hands and fingers puffy but the skin was taught, tight and tough; raw and desensitized from prolonged exposure to the harsh winter winds. in the city there was a calmness everywhere we went. it was 6 hours before i heard my first horn honk in Beijing but there were cars and buses abound and by the end of the trip i think i heard a total of 5 honked horns. the most bizarre thing was that there were KFCs on every block it seemed but coffee shops and conveniences stores that are so plentiful here in korea seemed really hard to spot around Beijing. the hotel we stayed in was the tallest building in Beijing, half hotel, half offices. we were right across from the new CCTV building. i do wish that i could have explored the city more but for now, so much of Beijing will have to remain undiscovered, until i can get back there again.