Beijing Day 3

Last night after a long day, we finally were able to meet up with Mark's friend Colin. Colin was working in Shanghai for Morgan Stanley, but is now living in Beijing. He is enrolled in an intense Chinese language course in order to help him learn the language. A nice girl we met in our hostel dorm let us borrow her cell phone to get ahold of Colin. She is of Cambodian decent, grew up in Paris, but currently studying in Shanghai. However, she is in Beijing just for a visit. Anyways, so after we got ahold of Colin, we met up with him for dinner. Our new friend and another guy from Mexico that is staying in our room went out looking for this restaurant we were supposed to meet him at. Luckily for us, our new friend speaks 5 languages! (To her this is no big deal, and she wishes she spoke more) Meeting Colin was exciting becuase he is a very friendly and funny guy. He also filled us in on what its been like living in China as an American. His Chinese is actually quite good already, which is a trip to hear. After a great dinner (which Colin treated us to) we decided to go out to the bars and mingle with the locals. The found a cool rooftop bar called Blu Bar and had a couple drinks while learning more about our new friends from Paris and Mexico. We then headed to a club called China Doll for some dancing. Luckily for us, Americans got 1 free drink as a way of honoring July 4th. Dancing the night away to techno, the intense strobe lights accented the unusual adult content being displayed on the jumbo screen above the dance floor. Quite unusual. This morning, after popping a few Advil, Mark and I set out for our day. Passing a few local food stands, we grabbed a breakfast sandwich which we cleverly nicknamed "Egg McMao" since Mao is apparently the man here. Mark refers to him as "Mr. China". He is everywhere; money, the Forbidden City, watches, and many other random things. The same food stand sells another food item that we have come to enjoy. We call this one the "Crunch Wrap Beijing" because it is so similar to Taco Bell's Crunch Wrap Supreme. After breakfast, we went on a quest to find the new Olympic venue. Since its not done being built, there is no way for tourist to really see it. The subway line is not finished yet either, so we took a cab. After drawing the Olympic rings on a piece of paper to communicate with the driver, we were on our way. The whole venue is wrapped with metal sheet walls, establishing the construction site. We tried to enter, but a military guard wouldnt let us in. Defeated, we crossed the street. A friendly man dressed much nicer than any other Chinese man on the street said hello to us and started a conversation. We thought he was going to try to sell us something, but turns out he must be an engineer on the project. He actually offered us his hard hat to go up a building still under construction in order to get an overhead view of the stadium, aquatic center, and basketball venue. He settled for just getting past the guards. Once on the site, we passed kids much younger than us building what will be the newest Olympic venur for the 2008 games. The is still much work to be done, but the stadium and other venues look to be almost done. The stadium, or Bird's Nest as it is being called, is amazing! Google "Bird's Nest Beijing" and you will get an idea. The aquatic center is also a site to see, not only looking cool, but being a sustainable "green" building as well. Since we weren't supposed to be on site anyways, we took our pictures and soon left. I will try to post some when I get to Shanghai. After the Olmpic venue, we headed to the Summer Palace, a large palace which grounds surround a big lake. It was very neat and we hiked to the top where there is a Buddhist Temple. The Summer Palace is not very old at all, being built in the early 1800s. After the Palace, we went to see the new Opera House that is being built in Beijing. Another amazing building! It's not quite finished, but almost. It Looks like an egg sitting in a lake. There are no visible entrances because patrons will have to enter from afar and walk under the lake in order to get inside. After seeing this, we headed back to the hostel. Tonight we are going to keep it mellow and grab some dinner with the Danish girls we met at the hostel. Tomorrow we are going to go to the Silk Market to buy some Chinese knock-offs and then we are taking the overnight train to Shanghai. Ill fill you in then.