CELEBRITY DAY!

We woke up at 7am, and spent part of the morning getting organized and making plans. Peter had to give a final and grade papers, so Clark, Sunia, Kevin and I were on our own. We stopped on the street for some breakfast dumplings and got it by pointing to a bag of it. We all really liked this as a breakfast dish.

We figured on the subway and headed to Tiananmen Square. It was a HUGE space, quite overwhelming. It’s amazing to think about the timing of everything that’s happened there; so much of it was recent! We walked the length of the square to the entrance of the Forbidden City, where the portrait of Mao hangs. His preserved body is also in the middle of the square, in a mausoleum.

Everything we saw was just so big- both the individual buildings and the area as a whole. We could have spent several days in the Forbidden City and not seen it at all. It was completely secluded from the rest of the city, surrounded by a moat. They said the emperors rarely left there, maybe just to go to the summer palace!

The story of the day was that everyone wanted to have their picture taken with us. Especially Clark it seemed! We were the center of attention anywhere we went. Clark took a picture with a class of kids, and they continued to ask for more and more until he walked away. The Chinese all like to display the ‘victory’ sign in their photos.

We climbed up to the highest point in Beijing in Beihai park. At the top was a temple with a big Buddha in it. It was very crowded, but people would approach it and bow several times. It felt more touristy than worship-like, but the view of the city was great, although covered with smog.

After climbing we tried to order lunch for ourselves, but succeeded only in getting some Chinese snacks, including cake and something salty. It was nice to sit for awhile as we’d been on our feet all day, and we were very sore still from climbing the Great Wall.

We met up with Peter in front of the Mao portrait for some photos in the square. Again people came up and wanted pictures with the foreigners.

Some women wanted theirs with me, and I towered over them!

We walked for awhile, and then took a bus to get to a park that included the Temple of Heaven. It was too late to go inside, but we could walk around the park and had good views of the temple.

We had dinner at a specialty noodle shop nearby with Nakia, Drew, and Clark’s friend from college, John. John has been in Beijing since March, and lives in the ‘Western” oriented part. He hasn’t had to assimilate as much and also is paid a western salary. The contrast between his and Peter’s experiences was clear. The restaurant was loud and seemed to be famous for the shouting servers. Peter had to fight to get the noodles that we ordered and at the end of the meal he even walked up to the kitchen. The eggplant was fantastic, and made me want to have more of it at home!

We took a taxi to the massage parlor. Peter set us up with massages for me, Clark, and Kevin. Then he took off to go grade papers. We were put in a room with 2 double beds on the floor, and they brought us pajamas to put on. Communication was difficult and they didn’t use many gestures to help us understand.

We each took turns showering and put on the comfy clothes. I wanted to take them home for pajamas! Then they moved us to another room, with four single beds. We each had our own masseuse, Kevin and Clark had girls and I had a guy. They put our feet in buckets of hot water, and began rubbing our shoulders. Then they began the foot massage. It felt very good for the most part, but was not very relaxing! They kept digging their knuckles way in to the bone on the bottom of our foot! It hurt, but even when I flinched he didn’t stop. Clark and Kevin both got their toenails clipped, and Clark said they cured his ingrown toenail!

The foot massage lasted 45 minutes, and then they began working their way up. They did some stretching for us and used pressure points, and also cut off our circulation at points. We giggled and joked throughout, mostly because we had no clue what was going on, but it was decidedly better as a shared experience.

Peter stayed up all night grading so that we would be able to leave for Inner Mongolia in the morning.