Beijing Day 1

Please note – due to an error, day one was not posted yesterday. Please read both Beijing Day One and Beijing Day Two if you haven’t already

We woke up early this morning to fly to Beijing. Our flight was on China Eastern Airlines – the plane was an Airbus A330 with a 2-4-2 seating configuration. Even though it was only a two-hour flight, the plane size and service made it feel like we were on an international flight.

Upon arrival in Beijing, we met our tour guide and personal driver. We were taken to our hotel, which does not have free internet. As a result, we won’t be posting pictures, since they take too long to upload.

Our first stop after our hotel was the Lama Temple. This temple belongs to the Tibetan Buddhist, and is home to the largest Buddha statue in the world. The status is almost 80 feet tall, and carved out of a single piece of wood. The atmosphere of the temple was very peaceful, as there were far more people praying than tourists.

After the Lama Temple we went to the Olympic Park area. We saw the Birds Nest and the Water Cube. The area connecting the two buildings was packed full of people. We also saw what we think was the tower the Olympic Torch was placed.

Upon returning to our hotel, we learned that Tiananmen Square, along with almost every surrounding street, was closed for the practice of a ceremony celebrating the 60th birthday of the People’s Republic of China. Over 100,000 people will be performing, and they’re practicing every weekend from now until October 1st. As a result, we had two options for our one-year anniversary dinner – the hotel Chinese restaurant (nice but extremely expensive), or a local Chinese restaurant across the street (at least the menu and pictures and English subtitles). We decided to be adventurous and try the local Chinese place. I learned I’ve been pronouncing water wrong the entire time I’ve been in China, as the waitress did not understand me at all (and she didn’t speak any English). I ended up walking over to the fridge to point out what we wanted. At least she understood I wanted two. We were pleasantly surprised by the food; the spring rolls were particularly good. We ended up with way too much food, as each dish we ordered was family sized (not American family sized, but Chinese family sized). The food was also very cheap; we ordered two appetizers, two main courses, and two drinks for less than 20 USD.

Since we were stuck with no-where to go, we decided to check out a local foot massage place. It ended up being very romantic because the power was out and the massage was done using candlelight. Our 90-minute couples massage (which included feet, back neck, arms, and legs), along with Amie’s pedicure, was under 40 USD. We both decided we could get use to massages more often at that price!