Took a plane back to Beijing. we have a lot to do in the next two days to complete the city tour as Chris's last day is Monday. There were still a couple of things we wanted to do in the city itself: check out a secton of the city's underground bomb shelters and get some beers and play cards in a boat on Hou Hai lake. We also wanted to get out of the city a bit and climb the Great Wall.
We decided that our energy level was too low today to hike the Wall, so we decided to plan on the bomb shelters and lake. But, we couldn't do that until this evening. To fill our afternoon we checked out a couple movies at the Beijing Planetarium. The first one we went to was a 3D movie explaining the birth of the cosmos. Awesome. We then stepped that up and went to a 4D movie which went through life on earth until our late ancestors emerged from the waters. I won't tell you what the 4th 'D' was, but it was unexpected and rad.
Next, we went across the road to the conveniently located Beijing Zoo. In a word, 'depressing.' Why? The housing of the animals is grotesque (barren concrete holding cells). Alec said it best by saying "zoo's should be like hospitals, not prisons;" and the Beijing Zoo was a prison. On the positive side, things are getting better, and the best kept animals there right now are China's beloved panda bears. Great creatures.
Now we were ready to meet up with Paul (see earlier post about Paul) and eat dinner and check out the underground bomb shelters. The bomb shelters were built in the 60's and 70's during the Cold War scares. They are now abandoned, and a great place to check out if you get the chance. After polishing off quite a few beers we thought it time to (get more beers) check out Hou Hai lake.
We had a great time on the boat, lots of laughs, cards, beers, fireworks, swimming (well, only Alec. He did a quick naked dive off the boat into the water which everyone warned him was 'extremely disgusting.' "Mei shi" was his response as he was floating on this back in the polluted water.). Overall a great day. Got back to Alec's around 2am, setting us up to be even more tired tomorrow than we were today. Mei Shi.
Pictures:
cards and beers before the movies
4D!!!
Some Red Bull's before the Zoo
Panda CHNIA (yes, they seemed to have mispelled their own country. FAIL)
quick speed boat ride in the Zoo
Sign in bathroom of Fish Nation (dinner spot for tonight)
A bomb shelter
gettin on the boat
sparklers?
yummy swim
4D goggle's in MckieD's ? sure thing
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