The Great Wall

I've made it through another week of school! Yayy!!! Although I still can't say it really feels like I'm in school.  It's still much for of a vacation here :)  Out of all the classes I'm taking, I'm most excited for my Chinese class.  It's an intermediate Chinese class so hopefully I'll be able to read and write Chinese a lot better by the time I leave.  I'm teaching myself pin yin too.  I never realized that was how they taught Chinese nowadays because when I was younger, my parents taught me zhuyin (ㄅ, ㄆ, ㄇ, ㄈ, ㄉ, etc.) which is apparently a really outdated way to teach Chinese.  Thanks mom and dad :P haha.  While I've been able to practice my Chinese a little bit here, I need to work on using it more day to day with the locals and even with my friends.  There's a big group of students that are here at Tsinghua for the sole purpose of learning Chinese.  They have 4 hour Chinese classes 5 days a week.  I almost wish I could take it as well.  I feel like I'd pick up on Chinese so fast!  Well... for now I'll have to stick to my once a day classes.

Anyways, so what is the one thing that every person visiting China have to do???  Visit the Great Wall!!  I finally got to go this past Thursday with a couple of my friends.  It was only about a 1 1/2 hour trip from Tsinghua University, so fairly close.  It really is amazing seeing what the Chinese people were able to create soooo long ago and it's still preserved so well today.  The scenery and everything was absolutely gorgeous.  Luckily the day we went was a Thursday so it wasn't as crowded as it could have been and the weather turned out nice as well.  We visited an area of the wall called Badaling.  Which is apparently the most "touristy" area of the wall, but it's still worth it to go because the views are stunning.  My friends and I walked for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.  It is quite a workout.  Going down steps is so easy but going up the stairs is way harder.  Some of the steps were easily a foot tall if not more.  

The gorgeous view

Freaking tall steps

I did a lot of walking on Thursday because at night on the same day I visited the great wall, a couple of us went to go see the Olympic park where the 2008 Beijing Olympics were held.  We went at night because we had heard the buildings light up and it's really pretty.  Which it was.  I was really excited to go see the bird's nest and the water cube! After seeing it on TV so much, getting to see it in person I was blown away by the architecture of it all.  We were lucky we got to see it with the lights because we got there at 9:30pm and they close the lights off at 10pm. I'm sure it's a completely different sight from seeing it during the day and definitely worth it.  The whole Olympic park is HUGE as well.  I want to go back during the day and go inside if I can.  That would be awesome.  Apparently the water cube is open to the public to swim in as well.  Can you imagine?!?!  You would be swimming in the same pool as Michael Phelps and all the the other Olympic swimmers swam in!  

Water Cube: I had the resist the urge to go and bounce off it :P  They look like big cushiony pillows!

Birds Nest: Absolutely amazing architecture

I had quite the fun filled day on Thursday, if not a little tiring.  I feel as if it's not possible to get bored here in Beijing.  There's always something new to do or eat or see.  I love it!  It's also pretty easy to get around in Beijing.  Their subway system goes everywhereeee, and a trip to any part of the city only costs 2 RMB which is about $0.33.  Can't complain about that!  One thing that is a bit annoying is that it only runs till 11pm.  I mean come on, we're in China! You'd think it would be 24 hours... but I guess not :/  This was just annoying when we went to Shanlitun last week and wanted to come back around 3am but we had to take a taxi for 75 RMB when a subway would only have cost us 2 RMB.  We're so spoiled by how cheap everything is now haha.  We would never complain about a $13 taxi cab for a 30 minute ride.  

Time for random picture to end the post again!  As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been trying to find a good place to study.  One of the places I mentioned was a shop called The Bridge Cafe.  They have a wide variety of drinks and food that is actually pretty tasty on their menu.  However... the name of one menu item raised my eyebrow a bit.

While the ingredients of the MSG pizza sound yummy, the name certainly does not :P