My last few days in Beijing actually were really great! I wasn't expecting to have much fun because I was so sick of being in China, but I had a good time. Three Belgians from the orchestra were also staying, so I pretended to be Belgian for a few days. :) We stayed in the same hotel in Beijing that we had been in before, so we split up into two rooms. It was so cheap because we got the orchestra rate - only 420 yuan ($62) for all three nights, including breakfast! The first day, I was supposed to meet my friend who lives in Beijing in the afternoon. She got food poisoning, though, so she had to cancel. Instead, I had a nice relaxing day in the hotel, and I did a bit of exploring in the area around it as well. That night I went to a German bar with two of my friends. The waitresses were wearing traditional German clothing and they had imported beer and everything! They said the food tasted like real German food as well, but I just had juice.
On Sunday, I visited the Olympic village with one of my friends. It was really boring - it was -5º C that day and everything was closed so we just walked around outside and froze to death. Surprisingly, they had some really funny English mistakes on the signs there (surprisingly, because I would have thought they'd have someone good at English check all the signs for such a big event). After an afternoon with a different friend at the Silk Market (where numerous vendors spoke to me in Spanish because apparently I look Spanish(?!?!?!?)), we met the Chinese violinist from the tour for a great dinner. Everyone said before I went on the tour that American Chinese food is really different from real Chinese food, but I didn't realize how much until I got Chinese food with a real Chinese person in China. My favorite food were these dumplings filled with beef soup. YUM! :D Afterwards, we went to see Avatar (the movie) in 3D. It was exciting for me because it was the first time I'd been to a movie theater outside the US. Unfortunately, that night I got sick again. It was just like the other night, when everyone else who ate the same food was fine. How strange.
The next day we again met our Chinese friend to go to the Summer Palace. A Brazilian violinist from the came too. She stayed in Beijing a few extra days to visit friends from when she lived here before. The palace was really nice but way way way too cold. We walked across the huge lake, which was pretty cool, and also saw some people pulling dead fish out of the lake. I don't know if they were going to eat them or what. We ended up at a super-fancy 5-star hotel for dinner. Our Chinese friend ordered the most interesting dishes on the menu, and it was probably the best meal I've ever had. I'm really picky about food, but I tried foie gras for the first time, and it wasn't bad! We were all exhausted from a few long days and the cold weather, so we went back to the hotel to pack. The next day we went to the airport. Door to door, my travel time was 25 hours, and I only could sleep about 2 hours on the plane. -.- Boo. The flights were OK, though. I managed to make all my connecting flights even though I only had 1 hour in Tokyo and 1 1/2 in New York, and I had to go through customs and re-check my baggage in New York as well.
Altogether, I had a great experience in China. While I wasn't happy all the time on the trip, it was an eye-opening experience, and I felt like I really got to know China as a country, and not the superficial way most tourists do. I learned a lot about myself as well, I think. Maybe one day I'll return to China. I think with things changing the way they are, even in a few years it will be completely different!
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