Our first day in Beijing, we all decided to wake up at 4:30, so we could leave for Tieneman Square at 5:00AM and watch guards raise the Chinese national flag at sunrise (approx 6:00AM). Half asleep, and still in the gray of morning we entered Tieneman Square to be greeted by hundreds of other people who had woken up to see this extraordinary piece of Chinese culture and history that happens every morning. Guards marched up and around the flag pole that stood well guarded and blocked off from the public, nearly 100 yards away from the crowd. The guards raised the Chinese national flag to the Chinese national anthem as the hundreds of people gathered with cameras! A savvy “business man” was renting plastic stools among the crowd, so the lucky and willing people who wanted to pay the man a few Yuan could stand above the crowd.
After Tieneman Square and doing a very traditional “Chinese” sightseeing activity. We decided to do something very American…we flagged a cab down to take us to the closest McDonald’s! The cab driver had no idea where he was taking us, and upon figuring this out, we asked to be let out at a random corner that just happened to be right beside a McDonalds, where I ate the most delicious “hotcakes” of my life!
From McDonald’s we walked to the Forbidden City and then to Beihei Park (a traditional Chinese park and garden that overlooked a huge lake). We took paddle boats onto the Beihei Park lake and enjoyed the view of the park from the water. At the top of Beihei Park there was a temple surrounded by white, porous, cave-like rocks.
After Beihei Park we walked to HouHai Bar District, a well known street in Beijing that lines a winding lake with restaurants and bars. At HouHai we ate a delicious traditional Chinese lunch - sweet and sour chicken with pineapple!
From HouHai we talked past the Beijing Drum and Bell Tower. Then we were off to one of the most anticipated parts of the trip…the Olympic Sites! We rode the subway to the National Aquatics Center (Water Cube) and National Stadium (Birds Nest).
The Birds Nest and Water Cube, were two of the coolest, modern, man-made, things I have ever seen in my life! From the outside, the Birds Nest, home of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, is intertwined with huge pieces of steel that burst out of the ground, looping and curving vertically to horizontally, weaving a nest of steel beams in the most organized fashion!
The inside of the Birds Nest was blaring with Olympic Pride! A huge Jumbotron played clips from the 2008 Olympics. Just being there, the exact same place where hundreds of Olympians had trained, ran, competed, received gold medals, cried, laughed…I got chills! It was so cool to be in the exact same stadium, that a year earlier I had just seen the most remarkable Olympic opening ceremonies on TV. I tried to imagine being there on that historical night. The stadium chairs around the stadium were filled with tourists and stadium workers. The center of the stadium held the track and field as well as a huge temple-looking display in preparation for The People’s Republic of China 60th National Day. We were guessing the stadium would be used for this October 1st historical holiday less than a week later.
The night ended with a journey to the infamous/famous Silk Market – fake Polo, Coach and all designer brands galore, in addition to yards and yards of silk!
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