After a couple of gorgeous blue sky days, Monday goes back to the regularly scheduled clouds and rain. Maybe its always gray during the week and blue on the ends, I don't know if thats great or horrible.
We take a small bus to the Pearl Market in downtown Beijing. At Pearl Market, hundreds of vendors clamor for our attention so that we can barter over the price of their goods. On a rainy Monday such as this, there are few customers visiting, so our group expected to get a few good deals. I got a spare battery for my camera, which has run out a few times with all the pictures I've taken, cutting the price from 270 qai to 100 (about $14). I also got a Transformers belt buckle - which has been on my Amazon.com wishlist for a while - for 40 qai with a belt. Thats less than seven dollars for something that costs $15 plus shipping and handling over here, not shabby.
Everyone meets up and the bus takes us over to a plaza across the street from Tienanmen Square. We form groups and head in different directions; Steve, Katherine, Mario, Dave, and I head in the most logical direction: towards the square. Several monuments and large pictures of Mao adorn Tienanmen and the surrounding area, had it not been so rainy and miserable it may have seemed more impressive. What is impressive is that the rain hasn't driven away much of the crowds, which cluster around each
tourist attraction. We wander aimlessly before wondering if the National Museum across the street is open. Turns out its closed, however a Chinese family approaches Mario (they assume she's Chinese (she's Japanese), turns out this happens a lot) to ask if they can take a picture with Steve, Dave, and I. We politely oblige, giving Mario our cameras to document our growing fan club. As the first photo finishes, another family asks for a photo, then a third; we hurry to finish before the paparazzi arrive. The onslaught of photo shoots probably happened because we are damn sexy, but another option would be that we are Americans standing in front of the National Museum (with clock ticking down the seconds until the Olympics) - and it didn't hurt that I was wearing the Chinese national soccer team's jersey.
The girls decide to take a cab to some shopping outlets as we head towards the Forbidden City. As soon as we get through the main entrance, the rain picks up even more and we decide it would be a poor choice to pay to trudge through the rain to take pictures of a damp Forbidden City, we'll go another day. Instead, we decide to head to Oriental Plaza where the Official Olympic Store is located. The city blocks are much larger here, so it takes us at least 20 minutes to span the two blocks over to the plaza. After checking out some Olympic gear, Dave decides to take a cab back to Beijing Sport University while Yo Tai and I venture forth into the unknown.
Through the pouring rain, Steve and I pace westward down Jianguo Jie, which turns out to be a major road in Beijing. In addition to running between Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City, Jianguo Jie runs past the Oriental Plaza, Beijing Railway Station, the Beijing Friendship Store, and a Wal-Mart Supercenter; not to mention dozens of huge buildings devoted to apartments or corporations. We meet up with the girls at Wal-Mart and buy air mattresses (greatest investment ever) and Transformers on DVD.
Afterwards, we tiredly walk around searching for a Japanese restaurant for Mario's Birthday. The one we stumble into is perfect, no shoes necessary for service! We split a bottle of sake while eating traditional Japanese soups and sushi. Afterwards, we walk down the hall and see a store called "Ho's Fashion," where we took some obligatory pictures.
Now that we've written about the biggest days of touring, hopefully we'll be able to spit out all of our training days to get caught up before the Olympics start. Sorry for the inconsistency of the posting schedule, but with so much to do we don't always have time to blog every night (or week).
We take a small bus to the Pearl Market in downtown Beijing. At Pearl Market, hundreds of vendors clamor for our attention so that we can barter over the price of their goods. On a rainy Monday such as this, there are few customers visiting, so our group expected to get a few good deals. I got a spare battery for my camera, which has run out a few times with all the pictures I've taken, cutting the price from 270 qai to 100 (about $14). I also got a Transformers belt buckle - which has been on my Amazon.com wishlist for a while - for 40 qai with a belt. Thats less than seven dollars for something that costs $15 plus shipping and handling over here, not shabby.
Everyone meets up and the bus takes us over to a plaza across the street from Tienanmen Square. We form groups and head in different directions; Steve, Katherine, Mario, Dave, and I head in the most logical direction: towards the square. Several monuments and large pictures of Mao adorn Tienanmen and the surrounding area, had it not been so rainy and miserable it may have seemed more impressive. What is impressive is that the rain hasn't driven away much of the crowds, which cluster around each
tourist attraction. We wander aimlessly before wondering if the National Museum across the street is open. Turns out its closed, however a Chinese family approaches Mario (they assume she's Chinese (she's Japanese), turns out this happens a lot) to ask if they can take a picture with Steve, Dave, and I. We politely oblige, giving Mario our cameras to document our growing fan club. As the first photo finishes, another family asks for a photo, then a third; we hurry to finish before the paparazzi arrive. The onslaught of photo shoots probably happened because we are damn sexy, but another option would be that we are Americans standing in front of the National Museum (with clock ticking down the seconds until the Olympics) - and it didn't hurt that I was wearing the Chinese national soccer team's jersey.The girls decide to take a cab to some shopping outlets as we head towards the Forbidden City. As soon as we get through the main entrance, the rain picks up even more and we decide it would be a poor choice to pay to trudge through the rain to take pictures of a damp Forbidden City, we'll go another day. Instead, we decide to head to Oriental Plaza where the Official Olympic Store is located. The city blocks are much larger here, so it takes us at least 20 minutes to span the two blocks over to the plaza. After checking out some Olympic gear, Dave decides to take a cab back to Beijing Sport University while Yo Tai and I venture forth into the unknown.
Through the pouring rain, Steve and I pace westward down Jianguo Jie, which turns out to be a major road in Beijing. In addition to running between Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City, Jianguo Jie runs past the Oriental Plaza, Beijing Railway Station, the Beijing Friendship Store, and a Wal-Mart Supercenter; not to mention dozens of huge buildings devoted to apartments or corporations. We meet up with the girls at Wal-Mart and buy air mattresses (greatest investment ever) and Transformers on DVD.
Afterwards, we tiredly walk around searching for a Japanese restaurant for Mario's Birthday. The one we stumble into is perfect, no shoes necessary for service! We split a bottle of sake while eating traditional Japanese soups and sushi. Afterwards, we walk down the hall and see a store called "Ho's Fashion," where we took some obligatory pictures.
Now that we've written about the biggest days of touring, hopefully we'll be able to spit out all of our training days to get caught up before the Olympics start. Sorry for the inconsistency of the posting schedule, but with so much to do we don't always have time to blog every night (or week).
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