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  • Day 5

    Beijing

    October 1, 2017 in China ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Well not much sleep was had on this train. But it didn’t help I was sleeping with my backpack, doesn’t cuddle very much. But I made it alive and well into Beijing so you can’t really ask for more than that.

    I decided to take the subway to my hotel since it was the cheapest and most direct way. I wasn’t too sure about the public transit because the bus in Xian didn’t have English on its signs, but because this was now Beijing And there was English I thought I would be ok. And I was.

    The subway was super easy. I already knew where I had to go and which lines to change to so I was amply prepared. The train cost a whopping 4 Yuan, which was less than $0.75 Canadian ... bank breaker, Huh!!

    The train was pretty modern. It had a cool map on it for the route, a tv by every second door, and a nice announcer who spoke in Mandarin and English. It was pretty easy and a smooth ride. I did get a few stares not sure If because I’m white, had curly hair or looked crazy lol.

    Eventually I made it to my stop Chongwenmen, and there were four exits from the subway so I picked one. It turned out to be diagonally away from my hotel, so I had to cross a couple massive roads ... when I say cross, I mean run in between cars as they try to hit you I’m the crosswalk.

    The hotel was fantastic, they let me check in super early. My room is on the 6th floor at the front of the building, which is cool for the view but horrible for the noise.
    Since I was expecting a roommate I tried to keep as neat as possible (spoiler, never got one!!), but I needed to get my crap organized so out it came. Clothes, souvenirs, etc. but I did get it organized so yay me.

    I FaceTimed mom, and sent a few messages out, but my next priority was ... A HOT SHOWER. And this hotel delivered. The shower had so much pressure, and was hot, it was heaven. I didn’t want to leave.

    I tried to decide what I wanted to do that day, and I had a long list to accomplish, and said screw it and went to the zoo. I needed to grocery hunt first, since I knew nothing in the area I walked around and found “Beijing’s Best Bakery”, and it didn’t disappoint. I got some pizza thing, OJ, Panda Cookies, and Coconut Cookies. Everything was delicious. I kept the cookies to snack on throughout the day and the trip.

    I hopped back on the subway and went to the Beijing Zoo.

    So I’ll be honest here, I’m not a fan of zoos or aquariums unless they are rehabilitation centers or where if the creatures were in the wild they wouldn’t survive. I don’t want to pay to see an animal treated poorly, and yanked from their home and families. And I hadn’t heard good things about the Beijing Zoo, but I wanted to see those Giant Pandas, badly

    So when I arrived I was actually impressed with the Zoo. It was relatively clean, and the enclosures were definitely needed. People complain about them, but really they were for the animals safety since the people were so disrespectful to them. I could see the people climbing in to get those pictures, or their kids and getting attacked. We don’t need another Harambe incident.

    The Giant Pandas were cute and had a few different enclosures. It was neat getting to watch them just chill out and eat bamboo, or sleep. I really just wanted to give them a hug.
    I went through the rest of the Zoo and saw: wolves, birds, rhinos, hippos, giraffes, bears, polar bears, golden monkeys, and more ...but they had one place that brought out the child in me, Penguinland.

    There were a few different species that I hadn’t seen before, the only one I had was the African, and that’s from the Vancouver Aquarium. It was a pretty expansive enclosure, but the penguins weren’t too active which was normal. It was still pretty awesome to see them, and see a few new species.

    I checked out a few other exhibits, but to be honest I saw what I wanted to and opted to leave. Before I left I did send myself a postcard from the Zoo, I wasn’t able to send one from Xian so I figured this would do just as well.

    I made my way back to subway, and back to the hotel. I decided to wander around the area and see a little bit. I found a Starbucks and picked up a mug and a local drink. It was a black currant raspberry tea ... it was different, but tasty.

    I went back to my room to chill out for a bit before the meeting that night. And it was nice just to relax a bit.

    At 6 I went down and met my group, I was the baby of the group. All were older, couples, and a few singles, but it looks like a good group. Our CEO is Alex, from Russia. And I think he’s going to do great on this trip. After our meeting, we decided to have a group dinner at our own cost. It was the best food I’ve had the entire trip. We had duck, chicken, dumplings, etc. and it was all fantastic.
    After we all went to the grocery store, and picked up breakfast since we wouldn’t be able to have it before leaving tomorrow. We head off at 6 am for the Great Wall, and I can’t wait.
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