After the 13 hours flight- they were feeling a little rough to say the least. Everybody does. We made the hour long trip back to my apartment and immediately started fighting the jet-lag. Luckily- I have worked so much overtime that I more or less took the entire week off to be with them.
My parents have called their trip to China the gauntlet- they claim that I put them through a torturous 7 days of non-stop tourism. I feel that I just made them well-educated on the Beijing area.
First day we hit up dumplings, grocery shopping, & Summer Palace.
Second day was Great Wall with Herbie (!) at Mutanyu. The wall is a hike (no pun intended) so we just took it easy the rest of the day.
Then it was on to Forbidden City, Jingshan Park and LiQin's Duck. LiQin's is tucked in a hutong- and no cab drive EVER seems to know where the 'frick this duck place is. Our cab drive took us most of the way there stopped- and then this pedi-cab came out of nowhere. In broken English he told us "hutong too big" and "I take you Liqin's-you never find it!" aka I'm going to charge you 30 yuan for a joke ride around a hutong. I repeated Buyao! (NO WANT!) and instructed the cab drive to keep driving. We drove straight 20 more feet- and there was LiQin's. I felt a great amount of accomplishment. I'm no tourist!
One thing my parents quickly came to realize was the transportation dilemma. The three major choices for getting around are: your legs, taking cabs, and subway/bus. Each one comes with a benefit. Like your legs are free but can only take you so far so fast. Since I was already making us walk halfway around the city each day, we were greatly limited by our legs. Cabs. Now cabs are the most expensive form of transportation, but they get you directly from point A to point B. They are comfortable, sometimes even air conditioned, but they are limited by two things: Beijing traffic and Beijing drivers. The traffic here is bad, comparable to Washington, DC's rush hour. But you also have the driving style here, which, if your not use to it can be a hair raising experience. It's very aggressive and people dart in and out of lanes like it's their job. The final form is the subway. It's cheap, goes almost everywhere in the city, but can be horrible crowded, hot and uncomfortable. Jill and I have both had moments where we felt like we might pass out. Luckily there are so many people in each car, that if you did pass out, you would be held up my the sheer pressure exerted by the mass amounts of bodies. So- every trip requires the debate- how the heck are we going to get there?
Thursday we went to 798 Art District and the Acrobat show. My parents by Thursday were ready for some Western food, and I was happy to oblige. Unfortunately- they seem to have acclimated to the Chinese food too quickly and the rich Western food left us feeling a little gross. We did some quick bargaining and then it was off to the Acrobat show.
Friday we crashed. We thought we were going to go to Temple of Heaven but we all just collapsed and napped away the afternoon. At night we went out for dinner at a Korean place and did a little more grocery shopping.
Saturday we went to the Lama Temple, poked around another Hutong and came home for a Mac & Cheese dinner.
Sunday, we FINALLY made it to Temple of Heaven and then did dinner with my friends at Hot Pot! Yummy yummy hot pot. It was so nice to have my Chinese 'family' and my actual family together.
Monday, in the early morning hours, we gathered our things and jumped on a plane bound for the USA.
It was a whirlwind trip but I loved having my parents here in China. I'm pretty sure that they never would have come here otherwise- but it's such an amazing culture I'm glad they got to experience it. LOVE YOU GUYS!
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