16mm Cafe

Another beautiful morning in Beijing...crisp cool air and clear sky. I decided to make my way to the Summer Palace, which I was told would be an all day event. I hopped on the metro to Bagou Lu, catching lines 5 to line 10. As I started to walk down the street, I realized that the Summer Palace was much further than what the mapped proposed. So I called a cab (and no, I did not get ripped off this time) and within 15 minutes I was at the entrance to this spectacular site. (By the way, it cost me only 10RMB which is equivalent to $1.30) I have some great video footage and pictures of the Summer Palace, so within the next few days I will post them for you all to see. I cannot even begin to explain the sheer beauty of the Summer Palace. I opted not to take the tour and explore the Palace on my own. It is the largest imperial garden in the world and takes a full day to really capture all the wonders of the garden. There are monumental structures throughout and one can spend hours just observing the details and artwork located on the structure. To give you an idea, the Summer Palace covers 2.9km and the is a large lake in the middle. I spent a good 5 hours and definitely did not cover the entire site. (Again, photos and video will be posted later this week).

After returning to the hostel from a long day of sightseeing, I worked on updating my iPod. The great thing about this was I exposed the staff at the hostel to reggae. They loved it!!!! I was happy to hear them play The Aggrolites at the cafe. One of the guys was asking me if I could supply him with more. See what alittle rastalove will do to ones soul. Rastafari, I and I....lord have mercy. I need some action, tender love and satisfaction. My chemistry is rising, can you cause a chain reaction. Action....CHAMOT!!!!! (only a few of you will get that last line)

In the evening, I met up with my German friend, Jan for dinner. We decided to meet a local coffee shop called 16mm. It was located in the LuoGu Hutong where there are many coffee shops and bars. Our stay at 16mm was short because we wanted to grab some dinner and chose to experience an authentic chinese restaurant, one that was not intended for tourist. We felt that we should experience the traditional food. So we walked down the main street and arrived at a restaurant that was full of locals. We were the only Westerners in the restuarant so we knew it had to be good. Our waitress (fu-wu yuan) approached us and immediately wanted to take our order but we didn't have the opportunity to view the menu. To keep her busy, we order 2 Tsingtao's and by the time she returned we have decided on three dishes (Sauteed asparagus, grilled beef in a black been sauce, and chinese yams and snowpeas). Jan and I discussed the benefits of traveling with a laptop and "sold" me the model he purchased for 2800 yuan (roughly $250). Jan made a great point...I can store all my photos on the hard drive as well as music and connect to the internet anywhere in Beijing. Thanks to Jan, I may go to the mall tomorrow to browse the laptop he purchased and see if I can negotiate a lower price. This way, if I purchase it, I can upload all my videos without having to wait for the computer to become available at the hostel. Also, I will be able to use the magicJack my dad purchased as well as keep my Skype available for those who are connected.

Oh, one last thing, I want to thank my sister for a novel idea. A live video journal/feed of my daily life. As I was walking and talking to her on my cell, she asked me to video what I was experiencing and upload it to the blog. Great idea! So, I will honor her request and update this blog with as much video as possible of my daily activities. This way you can view, in WeegTime, what I go through here in China.