Trip to Beijing China October 3-9 2006
Well Bruno and I were finally reunited after two and half years of separation. The girl on the right side is Janna a mutual friend from Queen's who organized the whole trip. This joyous celebration of friendship however didn't last long and we were soon again at one another's throats. As you can clearly see Bruno is using the ancient Chinese martial arts technique known in the west as "chokin a bitch". He mastered this technique in the north west province of china where his family is believed to have originated from. Luckily for me Janna is also well versed in the deadly martial arts and was able to save me from Bruno's deadly grip with her own brand of Korean Konfu known as the "Pouncing pretend Punch". Luckily for us the military was not threatened by our behavior and we were able to stay clear of any Chinese prisons.
Despite the rocky start to the trip the remainder went on without incident. The first night we were there we went drinking with some of Bruno's former teaching buddy's and had a great time. His one buddy Sol told me about his first experience with Dr. John, over forty years ago and was amazed to hear me talking about my experience in Manchester and how it was life changing. He just turned 60 and is an entrepreneur extroadinaire. We also met Bruno's recording buddy Oscar. Oscar is a mid 40's 6 ft 4 black dude from Compton California. Him and Bruno have written a song for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and it has a good chance of making it. They are still under consideration but they are in the top three.
Day one we went to the Forbidden City, known now as the Imperial Palace. In my opinion Forbidden City sounds way cooler. Either way you could spend days walking around that place. We only spent the afternoon but still got to see quite a bit. The only problem was the three major buildings right in the centre were under construction to get ready for the Olympics.
Following this Janna and I hiked up a hill behind the city and took some great sunset shots. This was followed by our trip to the Silk Market. This is the classy market in China were you can get all the cheap Chinese rip off stuff for a ridiculous price. There is also the Pearl Market, which we also went to, which is more of the local market where Chinese people go to get ridiculous deals.
But it really didn't seem to matter since Bruno spoke Chinese and loved to barter with these people. They would offer us one price, lets say 1000 rmb (100 rmb is equal to 13 U.S) we would end up paying 165 rmb, which is like 20 U.S. Needless to say I bought a whole bunch of cool shit including a $35 Armani pinstripe suit.
The next day, October 5th, we went to the Temple of Heaven. This was another cool place were old emperors went to pray and rock out. Literally there was a music hall there where some of the ancient Chinese music was composed. We walked around there for a couple hours and made our way to the Pearl Market. After this we went to Bruno's older brother's place. Felipe has been in Beijing for the past 4.5 years and has a wife and a beautiful baby daughter named Bruna. He has a gorgeous place and it was great to see him again.
This was followed by us going out drinking for 90 cents a drink. So we drank redbull vodka all night before I finished the night off with five dollar triples of Canadian Club at this expensive dance bar we went to. I don't remember getting home but we all woke up at 2 pm with massive hangovers.
This day, October 6th, Janna and I went to the Lama Temple, which has the worlds largest Budda statue made out of one piece of wood. The thing is 18 meters tall and painted gold. They had to build the temple around this massive thing. We took some good pictures but you have to remember we didn't get there until 4 pm due to our previous nights escapades. This was followed by a walk down some sketchy street where we found a vegetarian restaurant. Janna was so happy that she did not have to guess about what might or might not be in her food we went in. The food was actually really good and the desert was great.
After dinner we went to the Chinese Opera. This was a crazy experience. The music has no rhythm and is done mostly by symbol, drum and stringed instrument that I don't know the name of. The opera was made up of two performances, the first one was called (I will update later when I get my program back from Janna). The second one which was called (will update later) was all about the love story between a scholar and a nymph. The nymph was in love with the human scholar and wanted to marry him. The god at the time didn't want this to happen and started a fight between his army and the nymph's. Well let me tell you something, those Chinese acrobats are incredible. They were jumping and spinning and throwing spears at each other and kicking them back. The costumes were incredible as was the speaking. It was in old Chinese and so high pitched that I am sure there are no dogs within blocks of the opera house.
The next day, October the 7th, we headed off for our sleep on the Great Wall. We drove for about two and a half hours outside Beijing to a place called Simatai, which used to have all sorts of resorts and hotels catering to visitors etc... but since SARS tourism has dropped dramatically and many of them have become run down and closed completely.
So we were supposed to meet this guy on the wall somewhere and neither Janna nor Bruno were really sure where. Our driver was waiting for us in the parking lot but there was over 50 km of Great Wall to hike, streching both directions from the parking lot. Luckily Janna remembered that the name of the town this guy lived in was JinShanLing, which was to the west of were we were so we just started walking.
Once we actually got on the Great Wall we found out it is a 4 hour treck to Sinhanling over some of the most trechurous parts of the wall. Luckily for Janna and I we met a woman who was selling sovenirs who showed us a short cut through the valley that only took us 45 - 50 mins and we got to our destination with plenty of daylight to spare. I am a little upset that I didn't get to hike the whole part of the wall but I was also very afraid of never finding our lodging and getting lost. I still got some great shots of the Wall and did quite a bit of hiking regardless.
Once we found out tower, yes that is right we actually slept on a guard tower on the Great Wall of China looking into what used to be Mongolia. Once we found out place we settled down and enjoyed a couple bottles of wine and some bread and cheese (I had meat but for those paying attention Janna is a vegetarian). We sat and talked and watched the moon rise over the Great Wall and China, it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.
On the wall we were joined by two girls from Ireland and their mother who was very very German. They were on vacation for a month and were touring around China. They were very nice and we got along well. When it finally came time to sleep I set my bed up on the outside of the tower and fell asleep under the Chinese moon thinking about what it must of been like 1000 years ago to be a guard up there staring into Mongolia thinking "What the F*%K am I doing here, no one is going to attack a mountain."
The next day we returned to Beijing in the morning in the pooring rain and set out for Beihai Park. Went and saw some Pogoda's and some grass, which is rare in China. Got some more Photos and met up with Bruno for some more shopping and our last meal with him. We also got so see his parents and hear his Olympic song.
Well I am sure there is some stuff I am forgeting but that was pretty much it. If you have any questions you know where to direct them.
If you don't have facebook then here are the links to my pictures.
http://queensu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2049559&id=81010263&l=ac94a
http://queensu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2049629&id=81010263&l=d8841
Well Bruno and I were finally reunited after two and half years of separation. The girl on the right side is Janna a mutual friend from Queen's who organized the whole trip. This joyous celebration of friendship however didn't last long and we were soon again at one another's throats. As you can clearly see Bruno is using the ancient Chinese martial arts technique known in the west as "chokin a bitch". He mastered this technique in the north west province of china where his family is believed to have originated from. Luckily for me Janna is also well versed in the deadly martial arts and was able to save me from Bruno's deadly grip with her own brand of Korean Konfu known as the "Pouncing pretend Punch". Luckily for us the military was not threatened by our behavior and we were able to stay clear of any Chinese prisons.
Despite the rocky start to the trip the remainder went on without incident. The first night we were there we went drinking with some of Bruno's former teaching buddy's and had a great time. His one buddy Sol told me about his first experience with Dr. John, over forty years ago and was amazed to hear me talking about my experience in Manchester and how it was life changing. He just turned 60 and is an entrepreneur extroadinaire. We also met Bruno's recording buddy Oscar. Oscar is a mid 40's 6 ft 4 black dude from Compton California. Him and Bruno have written a song for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and it has a good chance of making it. They are still under consideration but they are in the top three.
Day one we went to the Forbidden City, known now as the Imperial Palace. In my opinion Forbidden City sounds way cooler. Either way you could spend days walking around that place. We only spent the afternoon but still got to see quite a bit. The only problem was the three major buildings right in the centre were under construction to get ready for the Olympics.
Following this Janna and I hiked up a hill behind the city and took some great sunset shots. This was followed by our trip to the Silk Market. This is the classy market in China were you can get all the cheap Chinese rip off stuff for a ridiculous price. There is also the Pearl Market, which we also went to, which is more of the local market where Chinese people go to get ridiculous deals.
But it really didn't seem to matter since Bruno spoke Chinese and loved to barter with these people. They would offer us one price, lets say 1000 rmb (100 rmb is equal to 13 U.S) we would end up paying 165 rmb, which is like 20 U.S. Needless to say I bought a whole bunch of cool shit including a $35 Armani pinstripe suit.
The next day, October 5th, we went to the Temple of Heaven. This was another cool place were old emperors went to pray and rock out. Literally there was a music hall there where some of the ancient Chinese music was composed. We walked around there for a couple hours and made our way to the Pearl Market. After this we went to Bruno's older brother's place. Felipe has been in Beijing for the past 4.5 years and has a wife and a beautiful baby daughter named Bruna. He has a gorgeous place and it was great to see him again.
This was followed by us going out drinking for 90 cents a drink. So we drank redbull vodka all night before I finished the night off with five dollar triples of Canadian Club at this expensive dance bar we went to. I don't remember getting home but we all woke up at 2 pm with massive hangovers.
This day, October 6th, Janna and I went to the Lama Temple, which has the worlds largest Budda statue made out of one piece of wood. The thing is 18 meters tall and painted gold. They had to build the temple around this massive thing. We took some good pictures but you have to remember we didn't get there until 4 pm due to our previous nights escapades. This was followed by a walk down some sketchy street where we found a vegetarian restaurant. Janna was so happy that she did not have to guess about what might or might not be in her food we went in. The food was actually really good and the desert was great.
After dinner we went to the Chinese Opera. This was a crazy experience. The music has no rhythm and is done mostly by symbol, drum and stringed instrument that I don't know the name of. The opera was made up of two performances, the first one was called (I will update later when I get my program back from Janna). The second one which was called (will update later) was all about the love story between a scholar and a nymph. The nymph was in love with the human scholar and wanted to marry him. The god at the time didn't want this to happen and started a fight between his army and the nymph's. Well let me tell you something, those Chinese acrobats are incredible. They were jumping and spinning and throwing spears at each other and kicking them back. The costumes were incredible as was the speaking. It was in old Chinese and so high pitched that I am sure there are no dogs within blocks of the opera house.
The next day, October the 7th, we headed off for our sleep on the Great Wall. We drove for about two and a half hours outside Beijing to a place called Simatai, which used to have all sorts of resorts and hotels catering to visitors etc... but since SARS tourism has dropped dramatically and many of them have become run down and closed completely.
So we were supposed to meet this guy on the wall somewhere and neither Janna nor Bruno were really sure where. Our driver was waiting for us in the parking lot but there was over 50 km of Great Wall to hike, streching both directions from the parking lot. Luckily Janna remembered that the name of the town this guy lived in was JinShanLing, which was to the west of were we were so we just started walking.
Once we actually got on the Great Wall we found out it is a 4 hour treck to Sinhanling over some of the most trechurous parts of the wall. Luckily for Janna and I we met a woman who was selling sovenirs who showed us a short cut through the valley that only took us 45 - 50 mins and we got to our destination with plenty of daylight to spare. I am a little upset that I didn't get to hike the whole part of the wall but I was also very afraid of never finding our lodging and getting lost. I still got some great shots of the Wall and did quite a bit of hiking regardless.
Once we found out tower, yes that is right we actually slept on a guard tower on the Great Wall of China looking into what used to be Mongolia. Once we found out place we settled down and enjoyed a couple bottles of wine and some bread and cheese (I had meat but for those paying attention Janna is a vegetarian). We sat and talked and watched the moon rise over the Great Wall and China, it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.
On the wall we were joined by two girls from Ireland and their mother who was very very German. They were on vacation for a month and were touring around China. They were very nice and we got along well. When it finally came time to sleep I set my bed up on the outside of the tower and fell asleep under the Chinese moon thinking about what it must of been like 1000 years ago to be a guard up there staring into Mongolia thinking "What the F*%K am I doing here, no one is going to attack a mountain."
The next day we returned to Beijing in the morning in the pooring rain and set out for Beihai Park. Went and saw some Pogoda's and some grass, which is rare in China. Got some more Photos and met up with Bruno for some more shopping and our last meal with him. We also got so see his parents and hear his Olympic song.
Well I am sure there is some stuff I am forgeting but that was pretty much it. If you have any questions you know where to direct them.
If you don't have facebook then here are the links to my pictures.
http://queensu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2049559&id=81010263&l=ac94a
http://queensu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2049629&id=81010263&l=d8841
posted by Ben Stinson at 8:02 AM
1 Comments:
I like the stories - keep 'em coming. xo
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