Well we are back from our Beijing trip safe and sound. Let me start by saying we had an amazing time. We originally were suppose to leave Korea at 8:00am on Thursday. The early departure meant we had to get up at around 3:00am. Fortunately our flight was rescheduled for later that day at 1:00pm. So we got up at our normal time and made an identical journey like Thailand to Incheon Airport. Because it was the Chuseok Holiday (Korean Thanksgiving/Harvest Festival) there was expected to be a lot of traffic. On the contrary, in the morning it was a typical drive to the airport. Before we took flight Latanya and I made a traditional Korean fan in the airport. They were having a cross cultural experience center, free cross cultural experience center that is, and we thought it would be fun. At first is was great and then we realized we do not have too much patience for art.
We arrived in Beijing at about 3:00 in the afternoon. The flight was only an hour and a half, however we were delayed over an hour in Korea. When we arrived we made our way through customs and met our shuttle driver, so we thought. She was not the driver but took us to a waiting area for the shuttle. After about twenty minutes the van pulled up and we hopped in. The Beijing sky was so blue. It was such a nice afternoon. The temperature was a little warmer than Korea. The Van ride lasted only about a half hour or so.
We then arrived at the New Dragon Hostel. Hmm...but isn't our place called the Forbidden City Hotel, it sure is. What in the world? We asked the driver why we were where we were, and he said that our hotel was closed for the day. You see China was celebrating their National Day (much like the Fourth of July). Not only their National Day, but it was the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Chinese Communist Regime. So one could say it was a big deal. Well anyways our hotel lies with in a mile radius of Tiananmen Square (giant parade grounds). The mile radius was completely closed off to anybody not involved with the festivities, which were the commoners, us.
So the driver told us that we should stay at the hostel until maybe 9pm and that they would take us there later. He said we would definitely get there by midnight. We obviously had other plans. We did not want to stay cooped up in there for 6 to 9 hours, we wanted to see Beijing. So we grabbed a map and made our way towards the festivities.
Shortly after we headed out we started to realize that our backpacks were rather heavy. As the minutes passed they grew heavier and heavier. But we knew that this would not stop us. We walked towards our hotel and were met with crowds of people just standing around looking towards Tiananmen Square. All the shops in the nearby malls were closed. As a matter of fact everything was closed with the exception of a few small restaurants. We zigged and zagged our way down many streets to try and reach our hostel, because at this point we did not know that there was a strict barrier closing everything off. After countless failures we rested for a while on the sidewalk. We had some food from a local restaurant and ate it on the curb, literally street eats. It was delicious. It was simple, rice and a stir fry of veggies in a spicy glaze sauce.
Finally night came and more people gathered on the streets still looking in the direction of Tiananmen Square. Shortly there after we heard some loud booms. We were like, are they firing the tanks from the parades. We sure hope not. We stood up quickly and realized it was not gunshots but fireworks, many fireworks. We could see them just over the buildings in the direction of Tiananmen Square. So now we knew what everyone was looking for. The fireworks display started out like a Disney show but then grew to a magnificent extravaganza. There were fire works of different shapes, sizes and colors. We were impressed. After about 45 minutes of fireworks the festivities were officially over.
We attempted to cross the barricade but were told that we had to wait another hour. We did not want to take no for an answer and tried to weave our way to our hotel instead. Once on the other side of the barricade we attempted to find our hotel. It was like being behind enemy lines, very sneaky and exhilarating. We finally found our hotel and ran inside to check in. We were exhausted from caring our backpacks the whole day. It turns out that our hotel was only about 100 yards away from where we were standing watching the fireworks, so close. We were so tired we did not even look at our amenities and passed out. It was not until we woke up the next day when realized what we got ourselves into.
You can look at the rest of our pics using the link below- Enjoy
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=28212&id=1654712300&l=8f1aca18d5
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