BEIJING

Our last trip took us to Beijing, the capital city of China. We drove to the airport late on Friday night, but our flight was delayed by four hours, so we didn't arrive at the hostel until 5 am. This time, we were scattered in four-bed rooms, and I had two Americans and one Japanese girl in my room.

On Saturday, we were all a bit tired because we didn't get much sleep in the adventurous bunk beds. We went to the Temple of Heaven first.

The Temple of Heaven was like a large park with several small and large temples that you could enter. The grounds were very beautiful with lots of green space, and the temples were painted in vibrant colors, mainly blue, green, and red.

Between the temples, there were footpaths and seating areas, and at one point, there were many Chinese people playing multiple card games and other games that I didn't know. It was a bit like an open-air casino. They were even swearing and throwing cards, which was quite funny.

The different temples were actually quite similar. Inside, they displayed ancient artifacts such as vases and statues. One temple was elevated, and you could get a glimpse of the city from there.

It was quite touristy there, and we were once again asked if people could take photos with us.

Afterwards, we went to the city center. There are many well-known shops for shopping and restaurants. Although Beijing is a huge city, it felt flatter and grayer compared to the other cities we have seen. There were hardly any skyscrapers, and everything looked very similar.

In the evening, we went to a food market. Again, there were many food stalls lined up along a street. In Xi'an, we also went to food markets, but there was a lot of meat, potatoes, and sweet food. Here in Beijing, there were mainly insects.

It was pretty crazy, interesting, disgusting, and somehow disturbing. They had everything from whole chicks on skewers to fat maggots and fried snake skin.

Well, I thought to myself, if I'm already here, I should at least try one thing. So Julian and I bought a skewer with small fried scorpions. It was a bit daunting at first, but you just have to do it quickly because it's all in your head. They hardly had a taste of their own and were just crispy - I still didn't need another one though.

On Sunday, we went to the Great Wall of China. Another highlight of my trip. We took the subway and the bus out of the city. With our ticket, we could take the cable car up, and it was really nice because the sun was shining, and the leaves were so beautifully colored, and we could already see a bit of the wall.
It's really unimaginable how they built this huge, endlessly long wall. On top of a mountain without any mechanical help.

I think we walked about 12 km on the wall, up and down many stairs. It was really beautiful up there, I hope the pictures can capture that.

We rode down on a summer toboggan slide, which was pretty cool.

In the evening, we all went to eat Peking duck together. The ducks were roasted in a fire oven, and then you get a soup made from the parts that are not served as sliced meat, as well as thin pancake-like dough.

You then take a pancake, put meat in it, along with cucumber, garlic paste, onions, and a special dark sauce, and make a wrap out of it.

By the way, it's typical here that when you go out to eat with a large group, you get a round table that has a separate round glass plate in the middle. You then order a bunch of different dishes, and everyone gets a bowl of rice, and the plate is rotated so that everyone can take a bit of everything. It's pretty cool because you can try many different dishes, and it's just nice to sit in a group, eat, and end the evening.

On Monday, we wanted to visit the Forbidden City, a restricted area in the center of the city where the emperors used to live and rule. The name Forbidden City comes from the fact that ordinary citizens were not allowed to enter. Unfortunately, we were also not allowed to enter as Monday is a day off.

But it was still nice around it, we just walked around a bit and wanted to climb a small mountain that had several temples on it from where you can see a nice view of the forbidden city, but they were also closed on Mondays, so remember: Monday is not a good day to visit Beijing.

Then we walked through a park that bordered the mountain, and then we went to the Silk Market.

It was a bit like a big shopping center but at the same time also like an underground market. There were many shops, and in some, you could negotiate well, while in others, you couldn't. Some had counterfeit brand clothes and shoes, and others had real fur and high-quality clothing.

Julian and I then went to the airport in the evening because otherwise, we would have missed too much at the university on Tuesday, but the others stayed longer.

The autumn here is really beautiful. We have blue skies and sun almost every day. It's also quite cold because there's often a strong wind blowing from the sea, but I bought a thick jacket, and if you wrap up well, it's really beautiful.
Dalian has many small mountains that you can hike on and then you have a great view of the sea or the city and can enjoy a bit of nature. I think hiking on mountains or going to the beach definitely belong to my favorite activities here.

Recently, we went karaoke singing, and it was so much fun! We had our private room with screens showing the music videos and the lyrics, and three microphones. Each person paid about 10€, and we got beer and snacks and sang like crazy all night from 11 pm to 3 am.

Other than that, time is just flying by. I can't believe that November is almost over, and we will be done with our exams here by the end of December/early January, and then we will be saying goodbye to our new friends and this new life. But I don't want to think about that right now, I just want to continue enjoying every second I have here.

Learning Chinese is also making slow progress. Sometimes, I can already say or understand something in real life, but of course, it's still minimal. And when I do say something that the other person understands, they start talking to me even more, and then I don't understand anything again. But I'm having a lot of fun learning the language.

Yesterday, Giulia and I started planning our trip. I will come back in mid-February, and before that, we want to travel through Vietnam and Thailand for a month. I'm really looking forward to that too!

See you soon :)