Blazing Beijing

Someone said that Beijing’s air is rather poor, which I admit is true. However, today it breathed at its best, offering a clear blue sky and up to 26 degrees celcius of warmth. As it was an even day, we set out on foot. And by bus. And why wouldn't you ride public transportation. The local bus/subway card costs like nothing. Zit. Bus fare starts from 0.40 RMB which is like 4 euro cents. Subway costs about 10 euro cents. And subway is fast compared to sitting in traffic jam :P

But oh boy did that sun burn warmly out there today! I can already notice a nice tan coming up and there will be more sunny days coming up.

We went to a lake near the center of Beijing (which would be the Forbidden City and stuff like that), called Bei Hai (or Hou Hai, depending on which side of the lake you are). It’s a bar and restaurant area around a beautiful scenery, with lots of foreigners. And those little boats you can paddle on (see the photos on the right hand side). We didn’t go to those foreigner restaurant places – yet. Instead, we went in on this little alley maze and found a traditional Beijing snacks restaurant. They serve snacks that in the ancient times were the food for the poor people. Both sweet and salty snacks were at offer, and we also saw a talking parrot there. Mandarin, of course :D

Tomorrow would be the start of the semester, I believe, since it’s orientation day. I’ll finally meet the other exchange students. On Friday we’re going on a tour to the Forbidden City together.