i love BJ (beijing!)

Day 1 (April 1)
Shopping/eating around 西单 （Xidan）

王府井小吃街（wang fu jing street food)

Peking Duck at 大董 (dadong)
We had a fun-filled and food-filled day, but I couldn't get myself to try the scorpion skewers (the bugs were still moving!). I got some yummy lamb skewers and a chicken biscuit though. The duck was good, though I didn't think it was a lot better than the one that I tried at Great China back in Berkeley. We ordered 5 whole ducks. Duck overload. After binging on food the entire day, we went to Vix and Natalie flushed her phone down the toilet hahaah



Day 2 (April 2)
后海 (hou hai) bar street

鬼街 (gui jie) for dinner
After an exhausting night (we got back to our hostel at 6am), we decided to just take a stroll around houhai, a lake surrounded by bars, restaurants, and shops.

Local people don't seem to understand that Asian people live in America. A number of people tried to get me to go on their rickshaw tour by greeting me in Korean. I've also been asked if I was Singaporean. No. I am not. Neither am I a hired translator to my non-Asian friends. Btw, the squid balls were disgusting. Don't get them.

Guijie was good. It was an entire street of hot pot restaurants!

Day 3 (April 3)
故宫 Forbidden Palace

天安门 Tiananmen Square

climbed up 景山公园（JingShan Park）- view of Forbidden Kingdom at night

Bird's Nest
We had a productive day!
Saw some amazing architecture. Had the best peach ice-popsicle ever in the Forbidden Palace. Took tons of photos. Tiananmen square was just...a square. Noodles were eh. Ended the day happy, but with dead feet.


Day 4 (April 4)
慕田峪 (Mutianyu - Great Wall)
I haven't exercised this much since being in China. We signed up for a tour with our hostel and I think we got ripped off. Poo. Oh well. The slide down was fun!

Day 5 (April 5)
Bye Happy Dragon Hostel!
Our hostel honestly wasn't that bad. It was clean and it did its job. My only complaint would be the showers. At one point, water was just dripping out of the shower head while shampoo was still in my hair.

Do you see that panda in my hand? I got him at the Great Wall. His name is 汤圆 :)



I had fun! The people in Beijing are nicer than the people in Shanghai, and places seem cleaner. The weather was also perfect. Seriously, our trip couldn't have gone any better.