Beijing pt. 1: Beijing!

After being in China for 18 days, the holiday for the Mid-Autumn Festival had finally arrived! The festival is a popular festival an eight day event that is celebrated throughout China every end of September and early October  The celebration focuses a lot on Chinese traditions and reunion of families. Every year, when the festival comes people go home from every corner of the country and the world to meet their family and have dinner with them. I was very excited because I was finally going to have a substantial amount of time to explore the China I wanted to see. The first stop on my list....Beijing.

So because Chinese have this weird tradition of when a holiday week or three day weekend is approaching  they count Saturday as a working day. Instead of working a Mon Fri, I had to work 6 days in a row before having 8 days off. So after a long day of playing with stickers and dancing like a goofball , my work Saturday was finally finished. My roommate Craig and I were ready to set our sights on Beijing! Of course, both of us our terrible planners and thought to ourselves, "No problem getting a train ticket the night before 2nd biggest holiday in China." We arrive to the crowded train station in Tangshan that looked like an outdoor market in India or something. When we try to by our tickets, the only available time was 2am on the standing train. Keep in mind, standing trains in China are the most uncomfortable experiences one will ever face (I wouldn't know that until a few days later. . .  ) Rather than attempting that experience, we took a nearby taxi that was offering rides to Beijing for 150RMB ($23) each. The taxi ride was painless and quick and finally we had arrived in Beijing!!

Candy Inn Hostel Alley

After settling into our quaint Chinese hostel "The Candy Inn", we were ready to party. We found out about this small area in Beijing called Sanlitun. The place is foreign central and one of the top places to be to drink and have a good time. The bars and clubs have no cover, no ID check, no last call, and real alcohol! Something I had been missing since arriving to China. I saw more foreigners in Sanlitun (and Beijing) more than I had ever seen since I had arrived in China. It was a weird, but refreshing feeling at the same time to blend back into society for a moment and not stand out because of your face. We all partied late into the night, finally getting to hear western music and drink proper drinks (Old Fashions!!).

 Heading to bed that night, I was incredibly happy (and drunk). I was about to experience the China I had expected when I first arrived two weeks ago. The China that I saw on TV, the China that was incredibly modern and that same time just as enriched in tradition. The China that never slept, The China that would give me the honeymoon phase that so quickly passed living in Tangshan. I was going to experience Beijing, China.

Sanlitun street food

Sanlitun! China's version of Pacific Beach

Drunk Huka!

Real Alcohol!

Old Fashions!!