Skylab

Keeping up with a blog might be harder then I thought! I get caughtt up with the people and lose track of my days. I’ll do my best in updating this as often as possible. I seem to be updating Facebook a lot though since it’s a quick way to say something.

The Area and Culture

Temple of Earth is natural wonder to me. Really is heaven. Peaceful and calming. I sat in the park for a good two hours having a perfect clear state of mind. The sky was perfectly blue and the sun actually came out for the first time since I been here. I could not be any happier. I never want this to end.

Temple of Earth where emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasty dynasties would attend the annual summer solstice ritual of offerings to the heaven.

For the people at home, I want you to imagine the Meadowlands Expo Computer Convention INSIDE the Garden State Plaza in Paramus. That’s exactly how the Haidian district is. Little small places selling the most random technology related products but in a HUGE building. Most seemed fake or half broken products lol. Just crazy.

Went to a club called GT.Banana. Wrote a full review on my other site.

Sanlitun street is absolutely nuts. It’s a few blocks long with a TON of bars. Bar after bar after bar. A huge tourist attraction full of christmas lights and lanterns. Very alive. I noticed most of the bars had a stage with a guitar and singer. Slow paced music and pretty laid back. I got bored quick and decided to keep walking from the one bar I was at. I walked toward another street and I heard some upbeat music being played and decided to follow it. It was coming from a rooftop bar but to get there I had to go through an alley. Place was called The Saddle Cantina. Great crowd and great music. What really made this place special though was this one bartender. He was telling me the inside scoop of where to go and how the Chinese have fun around here. Nothing is better then learning something new from the locals. Bars are definitely the thing around here. The Chinese LOVE to sing and they sing beautifully.

In China, Nightclubs are not that popular. If and when they go out clubbing, it’s because they know someone from abroad or they been abroad therefore their more open minded. When going out, bottle service is usually what they do served with a huge bowl of fruits and food at the club. However their culture is more about restaurants. While dating someone, it’s either eat at a fancy restaurants or stay at home for a movie. As for bars, usually a group of people go with 4 or  more people. Sitting at the bar is very unusual as well.

The Food

I ate scorpions. In the district of Wangfujing this is possible. There are 4 of the stick but I could only handle two of them. It was fried, crunchy, taste of chicken, and actually not that bad of a taste. Pepsi was to off set what I was actually doing just in case lol. No vomiting thankfully. Took me a good hour to actually do it though lol. Just kept telling myself what the hell am I doing traveling if I’m going to try new things? After I did it, I got this huge rush as if i were on a rollercoaster. Felt pretty proud for some reason. After that, I ate this hewberry on a stick with tons of sugar coating on it. It’s popular in Beijing and REAL good.

mmm

Some Beijing candy type food!

Best breakfast ever

I really don’t know the name of the street but my new friend Monica took me to a famous eating street here. It had the same style as the bar street with tons of lights and glamour. All types of foods and very fancy. She told me even Mcdonalds and KFC would be considered a high end restaurant. It’s very acceptable for a couple to go on a date to Mcdonalds as it’s very expensive here for them. It’s funny though because in America we always joke around how low class taking someone to a fast food chain would be yet its acceptable here.

Since she lives in Beijing, I was taken to some exclusive places and eaten food usually only locals eat. She took me to down to the small alley ways of Beijing (These alley ways actually have a name and are very unique to Beijing) and went into a small shop. She bought me some crazy snacks. They have this Yogurt in a glass cup in which you drink out of a straw (Delicious! And the trick is to leave the glass there otherwise they charge you extra). Then came the “dirty food” LOL. It’s packaged snacks but I guess the quality or how it’s made isn’t the best. Regardless this snacks was incredible. She gave me the warning AFTER I ate them that I may have stomach issues due to it be “dirty” lol. Apprently this could only be bought in small outskirt vendors. Nothing to really compare it to but I tried three different snacks including one that is my new favorite (I have a new favorite pretty often) which is some sort of nuts coated in something sticky. Who knows and maybe I don’t want to know LOL. Really sweet of her to treat me and show me around a little bit.

And the best part, the people.

So yeah as you can tell, I’ve met tons of people already. The Chinese are EXTREMELY friendly to foreigners. More then welcomed here. I feel relaxed, a sense of belonging, and just overall happiness. I can visit an endless amount of musuems, parks, monuements, and world heritage sites but NOTHING compares to meeting someone new from the area you’re traveling in. You get the best experiences and it’s always the people you remember most about everywhere you go.

Monica has been incredibly nice. She works here at P.Loft Hostel as the receptionist. I’ve eaten things, went to places, and learned about their culture that I would have never eaten, went to, or known. Even my Chinese has improved quiet a bit cause of her. Her spirit is always high and always smiling. And her English is superb which makes things a lot easier since it can be pretty difficult to have a normal conversation with a local sometimes. My nickname is “New Jersey City Boy” and she came to that conclusion because all city boys have an iPod and all the other technology toys LOL. I love it. So now I call her “Farm Girl” and this is because she was born and raised as a farm girl. I’ve eaten tons of local fruits and vegetables cause of her. Oh and she’s been making fun of me cause she’s noticed guys tend to walk up and talk to me randomly then since I talk back and end up in some crazy convo for hours, she doesn’t think I’m straight LOL.  She says I’m very talkative and out going? Am I? I don’t think I was always like this. I’m guessing this is a good thing. I hope I meet someone as incredible in every place I go because all this is just amazing. Just this second she got me an ice cream! See! As I’ve always said, totally spoiled.

Whats Planned

On Wednesday I’ll be hiking the Great Wall in a unique far away area. The hike is about 10k kilometers (6.2 Miles) and takes 3 hours to get to. Real excited and I’m going with my new Aussie friend as well. We’ll be hiking from Jinshanling to Simatai of the Great Wall.

My checkout date is actually the 20th but I think I’m going to stay here a few more days then head to Xi’an. I have a few options for getting to Xi’an so I don’t think that will be an issue however from Xi’an to Kathmandu, Nepal is going to be a bit more difficult because it’s not that close. I’m trying to stay in my budget  so flying is a bit much. I’ll figure something out.

I’ve met many more people here but I could be going on forever. I got plenty of pictures and one thing I’ll be doing more often is taking pictures of all the people I’ve met.