CHCHCh..China...Part 2

We decided to take it easy on Friday and sleep in. After having our American breakfast, which I had everyday (yum), we headed to find a museum. We never found the museum that we were looking for. The taxi drove all over the city and we ended up in the slum area where he decided to tell us he didn't know where it was. He told us by saying NO. haha. So, we quickly looked for another destination in our handy little guide book, because we sure as hell weren't going to stay where we were. haha. So, went to another art museum and it was closed. haha. We spent the afternoon in the taxi and seeing the city. It was a bust, but still fun. I have learned to be very patient in Asia, because I am constantly lost and can't read or speak the language.

That evening, we went to an acrobatic show. I had no idea what it would be like, but it was pretty incredible. I didn't realize that it would be all children, which I felt guilty for watching them. I guess, their families put them in these schools where they learn how to do all their crazy tricks. The youngest child was maybe 4 years old? My friend was saying that Jackie Chan, the actor, was placed in one of those schools when he was a child and talks about it in his book. She said what these kids go through is pretty disturbing. Sad. Sad. They were so cute and really great at what they were doing.




Saturday

We went back to the museum and found it on our first try!!! Woop, woop! The museum was great! It was all young Chinese artists, mostly paintings. I couldn't believe how much the Olympics had been depicted in the artwork. There were many paintings and sculptures that had Olympic themes in them. There were children all over drawing and sketching the paintings. They were so cute.





Next, we headed the Bird's Nest Stadium where the opening/closing ceremonies of the Olympics took place. It was pretty incredible. HUGE! I feel like China, or at least Beijing, is trying to be bigger and better than the rest of the world. I am very curious to see what the city looked like before they started getting ready for the Olympics. Everything looked new. The subway stations were new. They built walls up in the city to hide the impoverished areas, although you could still see inside them through the openings. There is no way that Beijing follows the communism ideals. You could see the different classes of people- poor versus wealthy. It seemed to me that it was more capitalistic than anything. I need to do my own research or you should tell me if you know. It seemed like the majority of the people were very poor, but the government was putting all their money into the infrastructure of the city to appear something they are not. hmmm...








Next, we went to the Temple of Heaven. There were a lot of people trying to sell us more crap. I told one of the guys I would buy his crap for zero dollars and he was really confused. All of his fellow peddlers thought it was funny and they started laughing. Eventually, he caught on and started laughing as well. I'm such a brat.










Sunday

Our last day. First, we headed to Tiananmen Square (on the other side of the Forbidden City), which means 'Gate of Heaven'. This is ironic because this is the site of famous and tragic day in 1989 where 2,000- 3,000 Chinese people were killed by the military during a protest. The people were mostly students and intellectuals who wanted to mourn the death of a pro-democracy and pro-free market official. They assembled for 7 weeks and the protest reached 100,000 people before the military came in and wanted to clear the square. There is the famous photo of a man standing in front of a line of tanks, which I am sure many of you have seen. The Chinese government has not released the actual death toll and will only acknowledge a few hundred were injured/died. There were many other protests before that day, but this is the most famous one that many people have heard about. It was crazy to be there and imagine what had happened not too long ago.





Lastly, we went to Mao Zedong's tomb. I really did not want to go and support his movement, but the other Megan wanted to go. Mao was the leader of the People's Republic of China (Communist Party) from its beginning in 1949 until his death in 1976. It's very odd that people within China are so brainwashed by his legacy and actually think of him as a great revolutionary. Outside of China, he is blamed for causing severe damage to the county's economy and culture, not to mention he is responsible for killing MILLIONS of people. The security to get into his tomb was quite ridiculous. We had to pay to put all of our stuff in lockers. I'm not sure if they thought people were going to kill him, again? Personally, I was going to put him in my purse and bring him back to Korea. We couldn't bring anything in with us, but we had to have identification on us and show them. We went through metal detectors and x-ray machines. Then, we had to wait in line. People bought flowers to place next to his tomb and you could tell that the museum keeps reusing the flowers. People looked really moved and serious to see his body. I was trying not to laugh and be polite, but I was annoyed with everyone's ignorance. Blehhh. For the record, Mao is not a cute man. I know you were wondering.

One of my favorite moment was in the subway. This little girl (3 years old?) was sitting next to her dad and she must have heard us speaking english. She belted out, "Hello" and "Your welcome" to us and then looked away. I was laughing so hard. So cute!

Well, that pretty much covers my trip. It took me about 6 hours to finish, which included a few dance party breaks.I just realized I have been listening to the same cd for the past 3 hours. Oops. I was wondering why it was beginning to be annoying. My brain is mush. Time to make it better by watching a quality movie called ELF. I hope you learned something! China was great! I would love to go back and see other parts of the country. Here is a few random pics of the city and such.