Beijing is really neat city, and it's crazy busy! It has a really neat mix of random western things like KFC and American clothing stores, mixed with ancient palaces and temples, mixed with super fancy hotels and shopping malls. It really is an amazing (smoggy) city. I prefer slightly smaller cities like Weihai, or much smaller places like Vista so I don't think I'd want to live in Beijing for long but I can totally see why other people would!!
We stayed in a really cool hostel in Beijing and it was really nice! Hostels are great to stay in because they are so much cheaper than hotels. The one we stayed in was around 12 American dollars a night, with very comfy beds, clean rooms, nice bathrooms, air conditioning, and free steady wifi. I don't think you could ever get a hotel for such a great deal! If you ever go to Beijing, it was called the Red Lantern so totally stay there.
We spent most of our time walking around the cool alley way streets that are filled with shops, going to the night markets, and doing the super touristy stuff. It was a good combo because we got to experience both the sights and the culture of Beijing.
One of the days we were there we did a thing where you put your feet in a tank of little fish and they nibble the dry skin of your feet. No one was really able to tell if their feet were actually softer, but it was definitely an experience! It tickled super badly but towards the end it got a little more relaxing. We paid to do it for 30 minutes and at first we were really worried because we didn't think we would be able to stand it for that long but we got used to it eventually.
We stayed near a big lake and it had a lot of really cool stuff around it. Lots of nice restaurants in the mix with little noodle places and street food. There's so many smoothie places in Beijing, I wonder if it's for the tourists or if the Chinese love smoothies, too. So many good things to choose from!
The big night market in Beijing was a lot of fun. It was definitely for tourists but it was fun to haggle and see all the cool stuff they sell. I was trying to buy a cool thing (I'm still going to track one down somewhere so I can't say what) and my friend in my group got a good deal on one. I was trying to get an even better deal but the man got annoyed so he took it out of my hand and said "bye bye!" really loudly. Too bad he did that because I was about to buy it, but that's ok I'll find another one. :P
Beijing is huge with an awesome metro system that we tried to master. We got pretty good at it and never got too lost, but we did a few times.
We were only there for four days, I hope someday I can go back for even longer!
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