Bainne! *Heads down*
We would like to apologise for the delay between posts, we’ve been experiencing some technical difficulties.
Wow. This seems to be the only word to describe what we experienced on Saturday. We had our busiest day yet, visiting not one nor two, but THREE famous Chinese attractions.
The day started with an early wake-up call at 7. 15am from our very own AA crew aka Andrea and Anna. We proceeded to breakfast and made sure we were present for the roll call in the lobby and still on the bus for 8.30am. Here, we met our guide Ming aka Lady Killer. He informed us of the plans for the day and of we went eager and enthusiastic for the day ahead with our bodies and cameras charged.
Our first stop was Qianmen Theatre, which is known throughout the world for its comedy and drama. We disembarked our bus and bid farewell to our bus and driver for the morning, as we would spend the rest of it on foot. From here, we made our way to the Arrow Gate, on the south end of Tian’anmen Square. This was the first of five gates leading up to the entrance of the Forbidden City. This wasn’t your typical gate, it was a huge construction, 10 metres thick and 12 metres high. We surfed the crowds through a tunnel and then underground before emerging breathless and sweaty into thee monstrosity that is Tian’anmen Square. We were overwhelmed at its size, but even more so by the huge buildings each side of the square.
The Square was swamped with people trying to see the buildings and monuments which surround it in epic proportion. The longest queue was for entrance to Mao’s mausoleum, where his body can be seen. The people here are still besotted with Mao, even though he has been dead almost 35 years. They still speak of this great leader and a visit to his resting place is a cause for great excitement. The queue was ten people thick and must have been, without exaggeration, the distance from Killiney to Dun Laoghaire!
After spending some time taking in the views, we noticed some inquisitive stares from the people around us. After all, we did stand out a little, twenty european girls wearing identical uniforms with rather large sunglasses amongst 200,000 or so mainly Chinese people. Ming had told us to expect this as many of the tourists were from smaller towns and city’s in China, may be their first time seeing fair-skinned people like us. It was intimidating, however, when they started openly taking photos of us, and we found ourselves trying to hide behind each other as snaps were coming from all directions.We decided we needed a code word to warn each other of impending photographers. The word was Bainne, the Irish for milk, chosen due to the scarcity of fluent Irish speakers in China, and this word would be used frequently throughout the day.
We were jostled to the third gate of the Forbidden City at the north end of Tiananmen square, the second having been destroyed. We passed through a succession of gates and buildings, all leading in to the heart of the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City consists of 9,999 and a half rooms but only 40% are open to the public. Most of the artefacts from the different dynasties are being studied by scientists and professors in the ”forbidden” rooms, but a small museum open to the public has some on display. With so much to see, Ming informed us it was not possible to see everything in our few hours. He did, however show us a way to gauge the importance of the buildings in the city. As the emperor was most important, all the rooms and buildings he used were marked by nine dragon figurines on the eves, the empresses and heirs were marked by seven , the concubines and daughters by five, high-ranking officials by three and servants, one.
Our group boarded the bus and we were brought to the New City pearl market. Upstairs we were treated to the most amazing lunch in all of China. The restaurant was exquisite and we were treated like royalty, with more food presented to us then was possible to eat. The dishes themselves were works of art. when we had finished our meal we it was time to do some damage to the Pearl Market located downstairs. We were first educated in oysters and pearls, and how a fresh water oyster is different to ocean oysters in value and appearance. He cut open a fresh water oyster, and to our amazement there were 35 tiny pearls in it. We all were given one to take home with us and treasure. After this we were shown some more upmarket ocean pearls of gold and purple. With our new knowledge we were unleashed at the mercy of the attendants to do some pearl shopping. We were given a special discount on the pearls, and we managed to nab ourselves some deals, with which we were all delighted with. One particular teacher was in her element!
We reluctantly left the market and went by bus to the Summer Palace, the last stop of the day. It was roughly 50km northwest of Beijing, sand we managed to grab a few minutes napping time on the journey. The Summer Palace was the royal family’s summer home in the past, and was built in the 1750s. The place itself was a breath of fresh air, pun intended. It was beautiful, stunning, indescribable. It was a refreshing experience to see all the greenery and nature after the dulled atmosphere and scenery in the centre of Beijing. The central Kunming Lake covers 2.2 square kilometers and is entirely man-made, the excavated soil was used to build Longevity Hill where the Emperors temple stood. We posed for group photos in what could contest for one of the most idyllic places in the world, it was simply spectacular. We stood on a mini peninsula on the edge of the lake, with the sun setting in the background and a constant warm breeze swirling around us. After this, we walked around the grounds, furiously snapping away. We hope everyone at home is looking forward to seeing the thousands of photos 
The day ended with another incredible meal at a restaurant renowned for its Peking Duck dishes. We all got the chance to sample this delicacy, and the overall feedback was that it was spectacular. We’d also like to mention our new-found skills at handling chopsticks, at this stage we shall be experts by the time we get home! We returned to our lodgings tired little bunnies, and we all headed off to our burrows to catch some well deserved kip.
That’s all for now, new post soon!
Xoxo China Girls
Hey guys, we hope you all enjoyed our last blog!
Today, Friday, was another early start, but a special one as it began with a bellowed rendition of Happy Birthday directed at one of our own members, Emily. It was followed by another chorus at the breakfast table, much to the bemusement of the Chinese students in the cafeteria. The Birthday theme continued throughout the day, and Happy Birthday was sung in no less than seven different languages, from english to german to chinese, including a special serenade by our guide Tony.
We went to have a look at the Irish embassy en-route to the city centre, where after spotting our elation at seeing an Irish flag Ms Criag used her diplomatic grace to gain entry for us. Unfortunately the Ambassador is with you guys in Dublin at the moment but we did get a picture with the second in command, Mr. Sean O’Regan. Everyone there was wondrously friendly and the experience was brilliant.
With our spirits now elevated to atmospheric levels we were taken to Sanlitun Village, Beijings’s answer to 5th Avenue. We were advised not to shop there as in comparison to yesterdays market, it was very expensive and bartering was not allowed. But for citizens of the rip-off republic it was business as usual and several purchases were made, with a guarantee of quality which was somewhat missing from the market. Special mention must be made of the Hello Kitty shop in which endless purchases seemed to be made, often under the unconvincing guise of a present for a younger sibling, which was reasonable as Ireland currently lacks a cat-themed emporium.
We were then taken to a famous dumpling restaurant in order to sample this famous Chinese delicacy. The food was lovely but was somewhat over-shadowed by the enormous cake our two guides produced for Emily. It was delicious! We sang a happy birthday in all the different languages again. An Australian family, hearing the English came over to wish Emily well. It was interesting, although they came from a country even further away from our country, we acted like we’d run into fellow Dubliners. It seems that, so far from home, a shared language makes a huge difference.
After lunch we went to Wangfujing street, the Grafton St. of Beijing, where we shopped, strolled and took advantage of even more shops which have yet to reach the Emerald Isle. While there Ms Craig and Ms Byrne, ventured onto one of the side streets and stumbled across a truly different occurrence here in Beijing. It was a small vendor selling snack foods, except the snacks on this occasion were maggots and scorpions, which were squirming in jars, moments before being scooped up and flung into oil and then presented to the customer on a stick. Some of us thought this was a really cool idea, others were somewhat less enthusiastic.
In the meantime, we acquired yet another guide, Ming, who has been telling us a lot about chinese history and geography, as well as dropping in some micro mandarin lessons and introducing us to the wisdom of Confucius.
That’s it for today, We’ll have another post for you as soon as we can, although we’re somewhat short on spare time in which to write, which is wonderful. Until next time,
xoxo China girls
PS. Please feel to leave comments as we really would love a message from home especially as you may have noticed, there have been some issues with communications from here!
This is the first post of our two week tour to China, we hope you will enjoy reading about our adventures in thePeoples Republic. Please feel free to post comments/questions! We want to apologise for leaving it so late to start our blog but we had a hectic day yesterday and we were all too shattered to fuction!
At the end of day two of possibly the most educational experience of our lives, we all feel overwhelmed with everything that has happened that it is hard to describe anything. The sights and smells are utterly alien to us, so please excuse us if we’re somewhat at a loss for words! One of the first things we found very strange was the way in which everyone stares at us as we pass, its quite perculiar. It really has opened our eyes to how we look and percieve others, we all feel so judged all the way. We passed the Birds Nest on our way from the airport and it was bizarre to see yet that almost immediately opposite it were old houses, the squat brick bungalows with the sloping roofs you see in pictures.
On our first day we were picked up at the airport by our two guides/translators/guardian angels, Tony and Rainbow (yes, that is her real name), and were first taken to lunch in a restaurant for some amazing food before being escourted to the most beautiful campus in existance. It is beautiful, an olympic size swimming pool the trees and ponds can not fail to impress. After that we had dinner, and we are slowly but surely learning that what is referred to as “Chinese food” in Ireland bares almost no resemblance to food here in the peoples republic, and some of us are finding chopsticks very, very difficult to use! ^_^ but we’re making progress. This morning we had a lovely welcoming ceremony followed by a tour of the school, after which we went to the confuccious institute for a fantastic exhibition on chinese culture, trying on chinese wedding robes and testing out chinese bells. After this we went shopping, and oh, how we shoped! Haggling proved to be somewhat frightening for a few but others seem to have found their calling. The goodies, and their prices, bought today, will go down in history. That’s all for now. We’ll blog again tomorrow hopefully, with more oriental tales. Until next time.
xoxo China Girls
PS. If theres any Katie Melua fans out there we can confirm that there are 9million bicycles in Beijing 
