The great firewall of china part 3: The Forbidden City

8/24 In the evening I went out with Lukas, David (colombia), Kaitlyn
(seattle), Tiger (china), and Garrett (germany) for some very, very
tasty chinese plus some Peking Duck. The must eat of beijing.
Afterwards we got some baijo (sp?) the famous hard chinese liqour and
went out partying on the streets and bars around where Lukas lives.

8/25. Today I did a lot on the internet with trying to arrange the
difficult trip to tibet. Difficult bc of the travel restrictions and
permits needed. I then headed off to the olympic area. Checked out
the bird's nest (olympic stadium) and the watercube (swimming arena).
Both are really cool architecual structures. The watercube is
especially neat b/c it lights up bright blue at night. They had just
opened the water cube to the public, so I went for a swim. Inside the
water cube they had a big tv screen playing highlights from the
beijing olympics. That stuff always gives me goosebumps. The
olympics is definitely my favorite sporting event ever. I decided not
to pay the extra fee to be a certified deep water swimmer and swam in
the part of the pool where they had put in an extra underwater
bulkhead thing to make it shallower. As I was doing laps in the pool,
I could help but pretend that I was michael phelps narrowly touching
out 2nd place to win the gold in the butterfly or Jason Lezak coming
from behind to beat the cocky french 4x200 free team. Sad to say
though, as I have not been in a pool in quite some time, I was a bit
behind phelps 200 IM world record time. I had always dreamed of
swimming in the olympics, and at least today I got the chance to swim
in the pool all the stars swam in. Went out that night with Tiger and
Lukas to his favorite local hang out spot, Helens.

8/26 Visited Tianamen square, known by americans mainly bc of the
massacre there. It's also the largest public square in the world.
Got my picture taken next to the huge painting of Mao and then got my
picture taken by about 50 other chinese tourists who wanted me in
their picture with Mao. I then visited the forbidden city, which I
actually remembered a bit of from watching the Last Emperor with Mr.
Wells. The forbidden city is massive with impressive and traditional
chinese architecture. It took the whole afternoon to see it and I
didn't come close to seeing all of it. My favorite parts were some of
the hidden gardens and unique rocks in the garden, though of course
the massive temples were impressive. After going through the city, I
hiked up a hill nearby to get a really nice bird's eye view of the
forbidden city and part of beijing. That night Lin (Lukas ladyfriend
from china) took me, Lukas, and Garret to a fancy vietnamese
restaurant in the hutongs where she had a voucher for free meals.
Before the meal we also checked out some bbq kebabs and had some beers
in a quiet hutong.

8/27. I did a long walking tour in the morning of the hutongs and
also visited the bell and drum towers. The hutongs are the original
beijing living areas. They are just 1 story areas with a maze of tiny
and narrow alleywas only suitable for bikes and walkers.
Unfortunately the hutongs are disappearing quickly as high rises are
replacing them; however, some of the more famous and interesting
hutongs are being preserved. I really enjoyed the hutongs bc they
still have this slow life feel to them. And bc they are such a maze,
they are easy to get lost in and also they block out all the noise, so
they are very quiet. Visited Mao's mausosleum and then headed off to
the summer palace. I think that the summer palace was my favorite
place in Beijing. There were just amazing temples built up on this
huge hill overlooking a lake and giant park. The views of the temples
and down to the lake from up on the mountain were just fantastic. And
it was nice to do some hiking and exploring around in a bit of a more
natural setting. That night Lukas and Michael (another czech) and I
ate some tasty Korean bbq. And since it was friday night, Lukas and I
headed out to party.