On Sunday Mel and I got up early and made the trek across Beijing to
visit the Summer Palace and the Beijing Zoo. We stepped outside of the
hotel at 9am and were greeted with a trifecta of awesomeness, 100
degree heat, 100% humidity, and a very thick haze from the pollution. The air
here is doing wonders for my complexion (said no white person in China ever).
First stop, the
Summer Palace, a massive park in west Beijing where the royal families once
retreated to for rest, and then it eventually became the royal members' main
residence. This place has been recommended for sightseeing by everyone here,
both ex-pats and the Chinese. People even recommended it over the Great Wall!
We arrived by subway (which on a total side note, the Beijing subway system is
super easy to navigate, is extremely clean, and is the fastest way around the
city), then we walked in a mob of people to get to the Summer Palace.
Apparently going
to the Summer Palace is the thing to do on a Sunday in 100 degree heat and 100%
humidity. Mel and I got in a line about 50 people deep and just waited in the
basking heat with zero shade except for the girl in front of me who had an
umbrella. However, instead of her shielding me from the sun, she played a game
called, let me try to poke the American girl's eye out every 15 seconds. My
sunglasses quickly became my only defense against the umbrella game...I was not
about to come home with a newfound respect for Stevie Wonder.
We stood there
waiting for quite some time when three girls come up and cut right in front of
us in line. Now line cutting is apparently a normal thing in China and people
do it all the time. Well guess what, not on my watch ladies. I tap the girl on
the arm and go, no-no-no-no-uh-uh! And I point up her and I point behind us and
step right in front of her. Now as I am doing this, Mel reacts the same
exact way and does the same exact thing, like we had this planned or something!
She and I both just started laughing. The girl looks at us, starts talking in
Chinese and is clearly saying shit about us, but whatever, it's over with and
we ignore it. So about 5 minutes later, Mel and I are talking and just carrying
on a conversation when the main girl says in perfect English, fucking bitch and
then proceeds to repeat it two more times. My head legit turned like I was the
little girl from the Exorcist. Once it completed a 180 degree rotation, I just
stopped and glared at her. One time, I had a girl that I played lacrosse
against in college tell me that I gave her "a look" after she fouled
me when shooting on goal. She said that she was pretty sure I was going to put
her in a body bag right there in the 8 meter arc. So if I had to guess, I'm
pretty sure I gave the same look to line cutter girl. Seriously now, you and
your friends cut in front of me and my friend after we've been patiently
standing there for about 20 minutes, and I'M the fucking bitch?! Girl, out of
the 80,000 Chinese people standing in line, you decided to pick the only two
Americans, and big muscular Americans at that, to cut in front of?! Nope. Not
happening. If Mel had her roller skates on, she would have roller derbied their
asses right back onto the subway (yeah, you read that correctly, Mel competes
in roller derby three times a week, umm wrong girl to mess with!).
So along with the
unbearable heat and the name-calling, you can imagine that
"exploring" with 80,000 people isn't much fun either. Our amazing day
was quickly becoming a disaster! We walked a couple miles through the main
areas of the park and saw some really beautiful buildings and got some great
views of the lake. Mel took some pictures with a passerby who requested a photo
with an American, and then we made an Irish exit and decided to hit up the zoo
since we had the time.
So I'm not sure
what I expected the Beijing Zoo to be like, but I felt like I jumped into a
time warp and went back to 1975...not that I was alive in 1975, but I think
this is what zoos probably looked like in 1975. What I saw was actually pretty
hard to stomach and I'm not sure I want to go to a zoo ever again. I don't
think China has reached the standards of the US (or Australia) when it comes to
having facilities and a natural habitat for wild animals in captivity. Many of
these animals didn't have proper shade to hide from the sun and their
enclosures were extremely small. I felt horrible for the pandas, bears, polar
bears and elephants. They looked extremely unhappy and depressed and many of
them were not moving. Now again, it was hot as hell outside, and I'm sure
that's why they were sleeping, but the entire place just didn't sit right with
me. I'm not sure how or why you would want to have a polar bear in an outside
enclosure in Beijing in the summer and only Mel and I couldn't even stay long
because we were overridden with guilt. This Sunday of sightseeing was a total
bust!
Now ever weekend I
leave the hotel in the early AM looking refreshed and clean as I pass each of
the doormen and greet them hello. When I get back at the end of each day, I am
a disgusting hot and sweaty mess. I look like I've spent the last 8 hours doing
burpees. I probably stink of sweat and I'm pretty sure the woman that cleans
the floors waits for me every Saturday and Sunday afternoon to
follows right behind me to sweep. And ironically, even through the thick haze
of pollution, this daego still manages to get a sports bra tan?! I didn't think
getting a tan in Beijing was even possible!
Mel and I went out
to dinner that night and we found a Mexican place and ordered a pitcher of
sangria to commemorate the sightseeing day of disaster. Sangria our Sunday
savior...sangria can make anything better!
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