Beijing & The Great Wall

This past weekend, my roommates and I boarded the fast train to Beijing for the weekend. We arrived at our hostel Friday night.

The following morning, we went to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. This section is not as popular among the nationals, and is not the place that is most often photographed (Badaling is the part of the wall that you will most often see pictures). However, it was a great section to visit as it was not too busy and the sight was still breathtaking! I enjoyed every minute of it. Then after we walked around on the wall, we took a slide down from the top of the wall.

That evening, we caught the subway and headed over to the Olympic Green. The subway is really easy to follow which makes it very nice for directionally challenged people like myself. Plus, Stephanie was along with me and had been in Beijing before. The bird's nest and the water cube were lit up. The torch was a little hard to see on top of the bird nest, but I did see it. It actually looks smaller than the one here in Qingdao.

Here I am with my milk tea. :)

On Sunday afternoon, we went to the Temple of Heaven and walked around. While looking around one of the buildings, a Chinese lady ran up to Stephanie and I, pulling our arm and saying "Oh, you our friend! Take picture?!" They wanted to take a picture with us and were so excited just because we were Western. Although I have had some stares, "Hellos", and pictures taken of me discreetly, I hadn't had anyone pull me into a picture with them.


After walking around the Temple of Heaven, we walked by TiananmenSquare and the Forbidden City. Later that evening, we headed back to Qingdao for my last week of teaching.


Next week is Spring Break for the students, so today was my last day of teaching. Yesterday, my students threw me a "surprise" going away party. I was actually quite impressed with how well they kept it a secret. I only had a couple of the second graders make some funny comments like saying "p" instead of party as if I didn't know how to spell the word party. :) My roommates and I are planning on traveling south for vacation to see some more of China. Then next Saturday I will be flying back to the States. It has all flown by so quickly!