April 29, 2011

  • Beijing - Day 1

    Thank God Xanga still works in Beijing! So apparently I can't go on facebook, twitter, or youtube here because China banns them.  So far my trip in Beijing is going well and I'm happy to say that I've made a few new friends from the time I left home, got on the flight, and joined on the tour to Beijing!  The first friend I met was Danny, who is actually my mom's friend's son.  They joined the Beijing trip too so I got to talk to him a little bit on the way to Beijing.  The second friend I met is the guy who sat next to me on my flight to Beijing.  He was so shy at first when I started talking to him but then we started talking more and I learned a few things about China and their versions of facebook, msn, and youtube haha.

    So in China,

    Renren.com = facebook
    qq.com = msn
    tudou.com = youtube

    =]

    Oh and his name is Gazel (which is Spanish name) but he is actually from Shan Zhou in China (an International student studying in UBC). 

    Then the third friend I met is Esther and she's from Calgary studying in Trinity Western University in Langley, BC right now =].  She's looking for Chinese churches to attend so I offered to bring her to PMPGMB once she comes back in September =]. 

    So today we went to visit the forbidden city as well as tian an men and outside of the Olympic village at night.  I got to try some good duck and tea (I tried some and I couldn't resist but buy some!  The tea I bought is supposedly better than the tea outside and a lot much healthier too =], which suits my growing interest for tea).  The girl who explained to us about tea came from 雲南 so she also shared with us the culture of her place of origin, which features the opposite roles between men and women.  This means that women are the ones who earn money and work outside and men are the ones who take care of children at home.  When a child is born the child also carries the mother's last name and when a marriage is to take place, the girl's family has to give 嫁妝to the guy's family (I always thought this only happens in drama =o= )

    In addition we went to watch the Chinese version of Cirque Due Soleil (Zap Gei) and I really enjoyed the ending performance of 5 motorcycle cycling at the same time inside a circled cage.

    Beijing is a really crowded city and I can't say that I love it (I dislike 1000x the steep down bathrooms here) but overall it's still a nice city.

    I'm tired now so more to write tomorrow.

    Good nights.

     
    :
    :
    :