Just one more day until I’m back in America.

I’ve been way too busy for regular entries – Buying gifts, spending time with friends, washing clothes, getting up early, etc. So you’ll probably be reading something I’m typing like it’s present tense, but being written a few days later.

Today

Tried to see Mao’s Mausoleum but all of Tiananmen Square was closed for the 政协. Saw the Temple of Heaven instead. It’s impressive in the scale and architecture of the buildings – Everything is rounded and there’s symbolism behind shapes and numbers of steps and tiles. There’s also a corresponding “temple of earth” which I didn’t see, but read online that it was square-shaped as opposed to the roundness of the temple of heaven. There’s also the temple of the sun and temple of the moon east and west from the center of the city.

The exhibits in some of the halls showed the ceremonies and architecture of buildings, such as how officials would fast or how animal sacrifices were performed. Certain tablets representing heaven, planets, the moon, and certain constellations were also used in these ceremonies. There was also some depictions of previous incarnations of the complex, the first being what looked like a big thatched-hut lifeguard stand.

Woke up at 8:00 today but didn’t eat until 13:30, broke the fast with some Shanxi noodles near Wangjing station.

Rode on the back of my friend’s moped to get some food, then cooked some dishes to eat together – Spicy chicken with potatoes, and a salty bok choy chicken dish. Served with Korean white rice wine.

Beijing

Beijing isn’t as smoggy as I thought it would be, but that’s probably because of the political event. It’s about as cold as Nanjing temperature-wise, but the air is drier so it feels warmer. This means my clothes are drying faster and my lips are cracking.

People here speak in a more understandable accent than Nanjing, but the older people’s deep, 儿-heavy speech can get hard to understand sometimes. Although they speak like pirates, it gives off a “capital” impression than other places I’ve visited.

Personality-wise, people are more about treating others (rather than splitting ‘dutch’ like most young western student-aged people would do), talking more to strangers and being a bit more friendly, and thinking they’re on top of the country because they’re the capital and have some great universities.

The food is special in such that it has the famous roast duck, 炸酱面, and some tasty baked dishes. Definitely less fluffy stuff like baozi and more thick stuff like 肉饼. It’s also been a lot harder to find restaurants when I’m hungry and on the road.

Leaving China

I got a lot of misc gifts for non-immediate family and friends, some being those cheap $1 bottles of baijiu or snacks. I might buy some more before I leave tomorrow.

The plane leaves at about 18:30 so I’ll be calling a taxi at 15:00 at the latest. Luckily where I’m staying is near the airport!