National Day and Other Activities

On October 1st, the official national day, Zoe and I went for dinner in Wangfujing and then walked to Tiananmen Square to see the celebration. It was insanely busy on the subway there. Since Zoe previously lived in Beijing from Feb. 2008 to this past June, she could see all the major changes that had occurred in the area since she first moved to the city. She was really excited to see how nice everything looked. 

The last time I was in China for a National Day was in 2002, in Shanghai. I remember going to Nanjing Lu and it being just as packed, if not more, with people celebrating the day. One difference, however, was that in Shanghai there were huge numbers of vendors selling inflatable toys, such as giant blow-up hammers and baseball bats. I remember being surprised to see so many young men and boys goofing around by bashing one another with those things. I didn't see anything like that this year in Beijing.

Anyway, here is what I had for dinner. It's supposedly Yunnan style chicken and musroom noodle soup. We got it from a big food court where you buy a card and then can go around to different stalls to try different types of food. It cost 14 rmb for a bowl and it was delicious.

Here is a view of the huge crowds on the street right after we emerged from the Wangfujing subway station. You can see that the air pollution was not very good that night. Whenever I used a flash I could see all the particles in the air. I want all the Olympics restrictions to return!
Me holding up the crowds:

Some of the building decorations we saw:

They had erected a huge display that summarized some of the major moments from the Olympics, particularly the achievements of Chinese athletes, but also athletes from other countries.
Here is a male gymnast jumping over my head. People looked at us a bit strangely for taking this shot.

Gah, I can't wait for my bangs to grow out a little more. 

Here is one of the newly finished buildings. The big black rectangle is a gigantic screen.
The next bunch of pictures are all from Wangfujing's street food area. We passed by these food stalls on our way to Tiananmen. They are all selling snack foods and there were many people lined up to eat. Sadly, I was full from the noodles I ate before, so I just took pictures. I had to keep paying attention to my footing because the ground was so greasy and wet in places that it would have been very easy to fall flat on my face and man that would be very gross as well as embarrassing.
They will cook all of the stuff on these skewers for you:
I like the way the guy in the picture is staring back at me:

I'm pretty sure the thing on the right is some kind of stomach...cow stomach?
My favorite treats, tanghulu, candied hawthorn berries or other fruits. Delicious!!!! But I noticed that the ones they were selling here were much more expensive and less delicious looking than the ones sold near my school.

Starfish on a stick....Sadly I also saw seahorses for sale....they are incredibly endangered and so I was a bit upset, but there's not much I can do except to never buy them.

The Wangfujing area, as it is called, is named after a well (a jing) in the area. The well's location is still marked so I had a picture taken with it.

This is an underpass that leads to Tianamen Square, as well as to a subway station. It was insanely packed with people, some of whom were already lining up to catch the subway home.
Tiananmen Square crowds:
Yeeecccch, look at all that pollution. Other than the hazy air, though, it was all quite nice and the square was well-decorated.

A gigantic picture of Sun Yatsen (otherwise known as Guofu, or the Father of the Nation):
An advertisement by the Twins  that we saw on a gigantic screen (outside of the Tiananmen Square area).
After checking out Tiananmen Square, we managed to find a number 22 bus stop at Qianmen that took us right back to our school. Happily I am getting better at fighting the crowds to get on board and I managed to get a seat for both Zoe and I. So we were able to sit and watch the city out the window as we made our way home. We even passed by what looked like a wedding district. There were stores advertising wedding photos, wedding dresses and wedding accessories. I'm sure they're probably rather expensive, but I will definitely go by there sometime soon to check it all out.

After I got home that night I was incredibly tired, so I just relaxed. Same thing with my day on Oct. 2nd. I just went for dinner with Zoe in the evening and went along with her to buy a heater for her room.

Today (Oct. 3rd), was also relatively uneventful. I really should have spent it doing some homework, but instead I went out in search of a good yarn store I read about on the internet. I didn't take any pictures from my day...I need to try to remember to take more, but I always seem to forget. Anyway, I took the subway to an area of town called Chaoyang. I got off at a stop called Dengshikou, which is on the newly constructed Line 5 of the subway system. And it's right next to a yarn store. The ladies there were quite helpful and I didn't feel like they were trying to overcharge me (but then again, who knows, I can be a little oblivious sometimes). They showed me camel yarn which is amazingly soft and doesn't seem as though it would be itchy. They also showed me a shawl-like thing with sleeves that they said would be very warm in the winter. So I bought enough yarn to make one. They sell it by weight here, instead of based on length. It cost me 196 rmb for three huge skeins of camel yarn...that's about 30 bucks Canadian, which is insanely cheap for the amount of yarn I got....so hopefully it's a reasonable price in Chinese money too. Here's a picture of my new yarn stash:

After the yarn store, I hopped on the bus to a relatively nearby store called the Bookworm. It's an English language bookstore/library. By the time I got there it was getting dark, so I just browsed around a little before heading to the subway and going home. I stopped on the way to pick up some dinner and soy milk for tea. And now I'm back here in front of my computer listening to music and possibly working up some motivation to do some homework. I am really enjoying picking a new destination each day and then making my way there....still, I would enjoy it more if Scott was here and we could explore together. Although, I'm sure he wouldn't want to go to yarn stores in China any more than he did in Canada. haha.

Tomorrow I will be going to the Yonghegong Lama Temple area to have dim sum with some of the other Canadian CCSEP recipients.