Beijing « Armen in China

*So, as many of you already know, I’ve been back in the States for about a week already. Unfortunately the tail end of my China trip was very busy, so I was unable to post regularly about what I was doing. This current post covers most of the interesting stuff I did before I left, and then in a week or two I’ll publish one last post summarizing my thoughts and feelings on the entire experience. Enjoy!*

The last few weekends in China were mostly spent traveling and sightseeing. I went to see Mount Huangshan, a famous mountain in the area, with my host family. We stopped by the village where my host dad grew up, which was a very interesting experience. It was clear by the stares that I got from the villages that some of them had never seen a Caucasian before in their lives–when we went to dine in the main restaurant of the village, the owner said she felt that “God has blessed her” because a white person had come to dine in her establishment. Methinks she wouldn’t have had such sentiments were I African-American…

Huangshan was very cloudy when we arrived, so it was very difficult to truly appreciate the cliffs and views. And, like almost all the other touristy spots I’ve visited here, it was packed with loud and obnoxious Chinese tourists, which also dampened the experience a bit. On the way back from Huangshan we stopped at a small historic village called Hongcun to check out it out–it was quite scenic, but we were tired from hiking the mountain so we didn’t stay too long. In any case, it was still really fun to hang out (as always) with my host family. Here are some pictures from the trip:

meixue--always the joker

in the woods

dreamy view in Huangshan

at peace with the Huang

where Simba was born

panoramic shot of a mountain village

noodle maker in Hongcun

possibly the coolest picture I've ever taken

Hongcun lake

The weekend following the Huangshan trip I went to Beijing, to check out the attractions and get a sense of the nation’s capital. I went with a friend of mine from Hangzhou, Nanette, but we often met up with other Stanford interns working in the Beijing area for the summer. We reserved a hotel in the “party” district of the downtown, and the nightlife there was actually surprisingly fun.

The first order of business was seeing the most famous tourist attractions–namely, the Great Wall, Ti’ananmen/Forbidden City, and Summer Palace. Ti’ananmen and Summer Palace were interesting, but both were packed to the brim with (again, mostly Chinese) tourists. To try and avoid the crowds for our visit to the Great Wall, we went to a section slightly further way from the city called Mutianyu, and it was well worth it. The Great Wall was undoubtedly the coolest of the Beijing attractions, if not the coolest thing I’ll see in China. The sheer size of the wall is daunting. Coupled with it’s strategic placement at super high elevations, it makes the Great Wall really something else. Without further ado, here are some pictures from in and around Beijing:

However, Beijing wasn’t all peachy. The touristy stuff was quite nice and well kept, but the rest of the city was rather dirty, smelly, and noisy. In addition, a thick blanket of disgusting yellow smog covered the downtown during the entire 4 days that we were there. I had heard about Beijing’s smog problem before, but it was still really shocking to see how bad it is in person. See for yourself–here’s a picture I took of the Beijing downtown from Summer Palace (which is in the NW outskirts of the city):

All in all, the trip was a lot of fun. It was great to finally get to the see the Great Wall and hang out with the Stanford interns at night. Unfortunately, my prior notions of Beijing as a crisp, modernized, post-Olympic capital city were misguided and false. If you’re ever planning a trip to China, make sure to stop by Shanghai as well as Beijing, or you might leave utterly disappointed.

The first order of business was seeing the most famous tourist attractions–namely, the Great Wall, Ti’ananmen/Forbidden City, and Summer Palace. Ti’ananmen and Summer Palace were interesting, but both were packed to the brim with (again, mostly Chinese) tourists. To try and avoid the crowds for our visit to the Great Wall, we went to a section slightly further way from the city called Mutianyu, and it was well worth it. The Great Wall was undoubtedly the coolest of any Chinese attraction I’d seen, if not one of the coolest things I’ll ever see. The sheer size of the wall is simply stunning. Coupled with it’s strategic placement at the highest elevations, it makes the Great Wall really something else. Without further ado, here are some pictures from in and around Beijing: