Sunday, June 10th-Tienanmen, Temple of Heaven, and off to Shanghai

Finally got a chance to fully see the Tiananmen Square

• That is quite an impressive square that’s really heavily guarded
• You’d think you’re in the middle of a war with all the guards surrounding the place
• It’s funny that there are so many guards but I could have brought in a cooler full of beer with no problems at all

• • An old guy out-ran me
  • There was an older 60 year-old European there and he was noticeably excited to get into Tiananmen
  • As soon as he got through security he power-walked in front of me and shouted back, “HEY, YOU’RE GOING TO HAVE TO SPEED UP IF YOU WANT TO GO WITH ME!”
  • I said, “Nah man, you go ahead, I have more time to see it than you do” and I don't think he got what I was trying to say because he power-walked pretty fast after that
  • Mao Zedong Mausoleum
  • I decided that it probably wasn’t worth my time to see an old dead guy so I skipped him but from the outside his mausoleum is quite impressive

• Temple of Heaven Park
• That was a really cool park and it made me feel like being catholic was easy
• There was an all-day ritual they went through in order to pray for a good rain and lots of crops that was like, “Oh wow that is involved”
• Plus it was nice to see Beijing and this park with no smog
• I guess the rain yesterday cleared away some of the smog

• Finally approached by “pretty Asian girl” scam
• It’s about time, 5 guys asked me if I had been to the great wall yet in order to rip me off and I’ve been waiting forever to hear from the “Pretty Asian Girl” scam
• Basically these two really pretty Asian girls walked up to me with really good English asking me where I was from and what I did
• I told them I was going to the National China Museum and they asked me if I wanted to go to a bar with them near the museum with them
• I said no (in order of importance)
• They were WAY out of my league so it sounded fishy (I’m talking they’re in the majors and I’m the bat-boy in single A out of my league)
• I wanted to go be a nerd and learn something and going to a bar at 11:00 in the morning didn’t sound like my idea of fun
• I knew about the scam through Lonely Planet
• I’m really cheap and I didn’t want to buy them a beer
• This is the way the scam works
• They take you to a bar to teach you English, they run up the bill, then they ditch you
• Not exactly my idea of fun
• I had been waiting forever too to experience this
• I’ve only been asked to have my photo taken about 5 times in more than 2 weeks so I feel like I’m really missing out on the foreigner experience
• I have been getting ripped off a lot so I guess I’m getting some of that feeling
• • Beijing South Railway Station is by far the nicest one I’ve ever been in
  • It wasn’t crowded, it was super clean, the noise was tolerable, and people were actually smiling
  • They wanted 5 RMB for a pen but other than that I love this place

• • The bullet train from Beijing to Shanghai was pretty impressive too
  • In fact I got to experience two bullet trains because I got on the wrong one at first and they were both really cool
  • I don’t know how I screwed up a sign that was in plain English but somehow I did and I boarded a train to Qingdao instead of Shanghai
  • Luckily some guy called me out on it and I got on the right train with all my luggage but I think I left quite a bit of dignity behind on the other train
  • It went at its fastest 302 km/hour (187.6 miles/hr)
  • You didn’t even feel it because it kind of felt like a luxury version of an Amtrak

• • The person I sat next to was really interesting too
  • She was a cosmetician who didn’t believe in the idea of personal space
  • She shared an apple and granola bar with me which I guess in China gives a person permission to rub up against you
  • She wasn’t into men though, I saw on her cell phone a picture of a young looking woman (I swear she looked 40 or so because she wasn’t wearing make-up) and I asked if that was her daughter on her cellphone wallpaper and she said, “no, that’s me”
  • I felt really embarrassed and I think she did too so she shut down her phone but the image that flashed when she shut down her phone was a full-body picture of a naked blond woman
  • I asked her what that was and she laughed and said, “I like them”
  • Got to the hostel with no problem

Shanghai subway when I presume it's not busy

• • I found it after following this college-age looking Chinese girl to the hostel but I didn’t realize that she was staying in an apartment complex right next door so I followed her into her apartment complex that looked super-sketchy but then I realized, “Oh she’s not staying at the hostel”
  • I actually realized that fact when I spoke to the staff and not one of them spoke a lick of English

So I backtracked and found where I was supposed to stay and tomorrow is looking Shanghai-tasti