Lunar New Year in Beijing!

Ace and I just got back from our vacation in Beijing! It was Chinese Lunar New Year, a major holiday in Korea as well, so we got Monday and Tuesday off from work. We booked a 4-day whirlwind tour of Beijing through a local English-speaking travel agency, and on Saturday morning, we took off for Beijing with about 50 other local English teachers, including 4 good friends; Brent, Grete, Ed, Bopha, Laura, and Carolyn.
After a very quick 2 hour flight to Beijing, we hopped on our tour bus and headed to the Temple of Heaven. This temple is where the Emperor would come on the winter and summer solstices to talk to his father, God. God would supposedly descend from heaven to have a chat with the Emperor in this beautiful, brightly colored round building.
Next, we had dinner- all of the meals on the trip were family style meals in huge restaurants, with several plates brought to each table that we could pick and choose from. All of the food was pretty yummy, but I have to say I think I like Korean food better. We did enjoy peking duck a few times, of course- it was very nice in small quantities.
After dinner we hit our big, beautiful, wonderful, glorious hotel. It was a five star hotel called Loong Palace Resort. I’ve never stayed anywhere so nice- we all reveled in the enclosed showers (not just a tiled bathroom with a hose coming out of the wall!), big bathtubs, comfortable beds and big fuzzy towels. The hotel included a bowling alley, nightclub, singing room, swimming pool, spa, sauna, hot tub, a million restaurants, etc. etc. etc. Our room had floor-to ceiling windows on the fifth floor that gave us a lovely view of the city- the downtown area is quite flat, so we could see a long ways- perfect for fireworks viewing.
The next day was filled with markets- Jade, Pearl and Tea markets- which were definitely tourist traps. I could have done without those. Just one downfall of a group tour, I suppose. We did, however, hit a large, indoor market that Ace and I really enjoyed- it was five floors packed full of fake backpacks, purses, “designer” clothes, and tons and tons of souvenirs. Ace and I bartered like crazy, and ended up buying large backpacking backpacks for about $30 each, a lovely hand-painted wall hanging, some really cool brass incense burners, and a few other souvenirs. It was Ace’s first time really bartering, and he did great! I think it was a good warm-up for our trip to Turkey.
Next up was definitely one of the biggest highlights of our trip- the fireworks. All evening as we were driving around, we’d seen huge fireworks being shot off downtown, from the street, bridges, between huge office buildings, etc. At about 10 o’clock, though, the city really got going, and Ace, Carolyn, Laura and I sat in our rooms and watched in wonder as the show got better and better for the next two and a half hours. The city doesn’t have an organized show of any sort, and pretty much every family just buys gigantic mortars and shoots them off together from the nearest street. It was STUNNING- like an average fireworks show was going off from every single block in this huge city, all at the same time, nonstop for at least 3 hours. There are really no words to describe how beautiful it was. We were all totally awestruck; it definitely makes my top 10 list of Most Beautiful Things I’ve Ever Seen. Ace will be putting up videos soon, just to give you a glimpse, though of course they can’t fully capture the experience.
Ace has promised to split blog-duties for this trip with me, so I’ll let him fill you in on the Great Wall of China, Tien’amin Square and the Forbidden City. Lots of love! Kait